scholarly journals The Quest for Legitimacy: A Comparative Constitutional Study of the Origin and Role of Direct Democracy in Switzerland, California, and New Zealand

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Mark W. Gobbi
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Constitutional Law ◽  
Direct Democracy ◽  
Minority Rights ◽  
Detailed Examination ◽  
Representative Democracy ◽  
Comprehensive Treatment ◽  
Cultural Expectations ◽  
Elected Representatives

<p>This thesis is a comparative constitutional study of the origin and role of direct democracy in Switzerland, California, and New Zealand. It reveals that the direct democracy systems in these jurisdictions came into being as a consequence of sustained periods of economic turmoil which coincided with widespread disillusionment with the performance of elected representatives. Constitutional reformers in these jurisdictions embraced direct democracy as a means of improving, not displacing, representative democracy. Their aim was to restore the legitimacy of their constitutional systems. The study also demonstrates that the majoritarian potential of the direct democracy devices in Switzerland, California, and New Zealand is limited. It is limited to the extent that is consistent with the constitutional principles underlying representative democracy in these jurisdictions, particularly those designed to protect minority rights. This reconciles the competing philosophical traditions on which most of the arguments for and against direct democracy are based. Provided minority rights are protected sufficiently, Jeffersonian-inspired advocates of direct democracy should not offend adherents of representative democracy, whether Burkeian or Madisonian in its conception. This thesis concludes that the direct democracy systems in Switzerland, California, and New Zealand are not the same, nor could be, given the unique forces that contributed to the formation and practice of constitutional law in these jurisdictions. They are different primarily because direct and representative democracy coalesced differently in Switzerland, California, and New Zealand due to variations in the constitutional principles underlying representative democracy in these jurisdictions. These principles vary because constitutional law in each jurisdiction is a unique and intricate confluence of law, politics, history, economics, and cultural expectations. This study also fills a void in the literature on direct democracy, primarily by documenting the origin of New Zealand's direct democracy system, analysing its possible role, and comparing it to the origin and role of the systems in Switzerland and California. In doing so, it provides a detailed examination of the origin and role of direct democracy in Switzerland and California, topics that have previously escaped comprehensive treatment.</p>

scholarly journals The Quest for Legitimacy: A Comparative Constitutional Study of the Origin and Role of Direct Democracy in Switzerland, California, and New Zealand

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Mark W. Gobbi
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Constitutional Law ◽  
Direct Democracy ◽  
Minority Rights ◽  
Detailed Examination ◽  
Representative Democracy ◽  
Comprehensive Treatment ◽  
Cultural Expectations ◽  
Elected Representatives

<p>This thesis is a comparative constitutional study of the origin and role of direct democracy in Switzerland, California, and New Zealand. It reveals that the direct democracy systems in these jurisdictions came into being as a consequence of sustained periods of economic turmoil which coincided with widespread disillusionment with the performance of elected representatives. Constitutional reformers in these jurisdictions embraced direct democracy as a means of improving, not displacing, representative democracy. Their aim was to restore the legitimacy of their constitutional systems. The study also demonstrates that the majoritarian potential of the direct democracy devices in Switzerland, California, and New Zealand is limited. It is limited to the extent that is consistent with the constitutional principles underlying representative democracy in these jurisdictions, particularly those designed to protect minority rights. This reconciles the competing philosophical traditions on which most of the arguments for and against direct democracy are based. Provided minority rights are protected sufficiently, Jeffersonian-inspired advocates of direct democracy should not offend adherents of representative democracy, whether Burkeian or Madisonian in its conception. This thesis concludes that the direct democracy systems in Switzerland, California, and New Zealand are not the same, nor could be, given the unique forces that contributed to the formation and practice of constitutional law in these jurisdictions. They are different primarily because direct and representative democracy coalesced differently in Switzerland, California, and New Zealand due to variations in the constitutional principles underlying representative democracy in these jurisdictions. These principles vary because constitutional law in each jurisdiction is a unique and intricate confluence of law, politics, history, economics, and cultural expectations. This study also fills a void in the literature on direct democracy, primarily by documenting the origin of New Zealand's direct democracy system, analysing its possible role, and comparing it to the origin and role of the systems in Switzerland and California. In doing so, it provides a detailed examination of the origin and role of direct democracy in Switzerland and California, topics that have previously escaped comprehensive treatment.</p>

scholarly journals Flexible Representative Democracy: An Introduction with Binary Issues

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Abramowitz ◽  
Nicholas Mattei
Keyword(s):  
Direct Democracy ◽  
Computational Approach ◽  
Representative Democracy ◽  
Majority Voting ◽  
Full Participation ◽  
Fixed Set ◽  
Liquid Democracy ◽  
Democratic Systems ◽  
Elected Representatives ◽  
Privacy And Anonymity

We introduce Flexible Representative Democracy (FRD), a novel hybrid of Representative Democracy (RD) and Direct Democracy (DD), in which voters can alter the issue-dependent weights of a set of elected representatives. In line with the literature on Interactive Democracy, our model allows the voters to actively determine the degree to which the system is direct versus representative. However, unlike Liquid Democracy, FRD uses strictly non-transitive delegations, making delegation cycles impossible, preserving privacy and anonymity, and maintaining a fixed set of accountable elected representatives. We present FRD and analyze it using a computational approach with issues that are independent, binary, and symmetric; we compare the outcomes of various democratic systems using Direct Democracy with majority voting and full participation as an ideal baseline. We find through theoretical and empirical analysis that FRD can yield significant improvements over RD for emulating DD with full participation.

scholarly journals Democracy and cooperation in commons management: experimental evidence of representative and direct democracy from community forests in Ethiopia

2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 110-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tsegaye T. Gatiso ◽  
Björn Vollan
Keyword(s):  
Direct Democracy ◽  
Representative Democracy ◽  
Baseline Scenario ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Community Forests ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Forest Users ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Selection Of

AbstractThe authors use dynamic lab-in-the-field common pool resource experiments to investigate the role of two forms of democracy on the cooperation of forest users in Ethiopia. In this experimental setup, participants can either directly select a rule (direct democracy) or elect a leader who decides on the introduction of rules (representative democracy). These two treatments are compared with the imposition of rules and imposition of leaders. It is found that both endogenous leaders elected by the community members and endogenous rules selected by the direct involvement of the participants are more effective in promoting cooperation among the community members compared to exogenous leadership, exogenous rule imposition and the baseline scenario without any of these modifications. However, no significant difference is found between representative democracy in the election of leadership and direct democracy in the selection of rules. Leadership characteristics and behavior are further analyzed. The results underline the importance of democratic procedures.

scholarly journals Popular Referendum and Electoral Accountability

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 715-731 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Le Bihan
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Direct Democracy ◽  
Representative Democracy ◽  
Elected Officials ◽  
Policy Decisions ◽  
Public Officials ◽  
Electoral Accountability ◽  
Additional Information ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Elected Representatives

This paper studies how citizen-initiated referenda affect the decision-making of elected representatives. In the absence of direct democracy, elected officials who do not share the preferences of voters may enact their preferred policies even at the cost of decreasing the likelihood of reelection. Direct democracy diminishes the policy benefits of doing that, as voters may now overturn some of the policy decisions. Hence, elected officials are induced to implement the policies preferred by the voters not only on those issues that are subject to a possible citizen-initiated referendum, but also on those that are not. This result holds even when the voters’ information about their true interests is limited. Moreover, whereas in a representative democracy, being more informed may undermine voters’ ability to control public officials, the possibility of citizen-initiated referenda means that additional information improves voter control, including on issues that may be outside the direct democracy domain.

Referendum: A Complement or a Threat to Representative Democracy?

2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 197-218
Author(s):  
Cirila Toplak
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Direct Democracy ◽  
Representative Democracy ◽  
Original Form ◽  
Current Crisis ◽  
Public Issues ◽  
Cast Doubt ◽  
Elected Representatives ◽  
National Experience

AbstractReferendum, the instrument which allows the citizens to directly decide on important public issues, is the original form of democratic decision-making procedure. It may be perceived as a welcome and necessary complement to representative democracy, especially in the current crisis of confidence in political institutions and parties. However, leaving the decisions to citizens may also cast doubt on the ability and credibility of the elected representatives; the referenda may become a public vote of confidence or distrust in the initiator(s). This article considers the implementation of the referendum in history, as well as the conception of it in political theory and political practice, and implementation of the referendum in (post-Communist) Central Europe. To this end, a comparative analysis of six Central European representative democracies is presented, from the perspective of past national experience with direct democracy, and related national issues and regulatory solutions.

Referendums and Direct Democracy

2020 ◽  
pp. 433-452
Author(s):  
Céline Colombo ◽  
Hanspeter Kriesi
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Direct Democracy ◽  
Minority Rights ◽  
Policy Outcomes ◽  
Systematic Overview ◽  
Democratic Practices

We start by tracing the origins of modern-day direct democracy back to the ideas of participatory democrats, and we give a systematic overview of the different forms of direct democratic practices existing today, as well as of the main criticisms of direct democracy. Next, we review existing empirical evidence on some of the crucial debates surrounding direct democracy: Does direct democracy lead to systematically different policy outcomes and to a better representation of voters? Do popular votes hurt minority rights? To what extent does direct democracy undermine the relevance of, and participation in, elections? Are citizens competent enough to decide over policy at the ballot box? What is the role of the elite and of campaigns in direct democracy? Finally, we discuss the controversial relation between direct democracy and populism.

Overcoming the failures of citizen participation: The relevance of the liberal approach in planning

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 448-469 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aleksandar D Slaev ◽  
Atanas Kovachev ◽  
Boriana Nozharova ◽  
Diliana Daskalova ◽  
Peter Nikolov ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Participation ◽  
Citizen Participation ◽  
Direct Democracy ◽  
Representative Democracy ◽  
Public Administrators ◽  
Crucial Importance ◽  
Social Rules ◽  
Democratic System ◽  
Liberal Approach

This article examines the obstacles to public participation in a representative democracy and the approaches that can help to overcome these obstacles. Democracy is never perfect because of the inherent difficulties of developing democratic institutions, yet the drawbacks of representative democracy are considerably greater than those of direct democracy. We consider public participation as an element of direct democracy integrated into the structure of representative democracy in order to balance the power of the centre with that of the constituent members of the democratic system. We underscore the role of nomocracy, by which we mean promoting the power of equitable legal and other social rules over the power of the centre. In public participation, the functioning of rules faces greater obstacles than in other forms of democracy. Thus, the professionalism of planners and public administrators is particularly important in formulating these rules; it is even more important when the challenges of establishing rules are major or insuperable. We distinguish between two types of planning professionalism: teleocratic (based primarily on technocratic skills) and nomocratic (based on the nomocratic liberal approach). We recognize the significance of the former, but our main contribution to the debate on public participation is to emphasize the crucial importance and priority of nomocratic professionalism in overcoming the difficulties of citizen involvement and the shortcomings of representative democracy. To test our conclusions, we explore the practice of citizen engagement in the process of planning bikeway networks in several large Bulgarian cities, where public participation is frustrated by the prevalence of the teleocratic approach and the lack of nomocratic traditions.

The parliamentary system and direct democracy

1998 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Graf Kielmansegg
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Direct Democracy ◽  
Representative Democracy ◽  
Parliamentary System ◽  
Democratic Systems

This paper considers the operation of representative democracy, with an emphasis on Germany. It analyses the implications of direct democracy (i.e. the regular use of referenda in reaching decisions on matters of public policy) for the operation of parliamentary and non-parliamentary democratic systems. The existing role of direct democracy in a number of societies is also considered.

Information-seeking to Support Personal and Community Wellbeing: Report of a study of New Zealand Men Using Focus Groups

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peta Wellstead
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Focus Groups ◽  
Support Services ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Structural Constraints ◽  
Health And Wellbeing ◽  
Study Results ◽  
Groupes De Discussion

This paper reports part of an ongoing study exploring the information behaviour of New Zealand men during periods of diminished health and wellbeing. Focus groups were used for this iteration of the study. Results indicate that New Zealand men face both personal and structural constraints to their information-seeking during periods when their health and wellbeing may be compromised. This study highlights that service providers need to develop more effective information delivery mechanisms and support services for men. These services need to be appealing to men and reflect men’s information seeking preferences. The role of LIS professionals in supporting this endeavour is discussed. Cet article présente une étude en cours explorant le comportement informationnel d’ hommes néo-zélandais durant des périodes où leur état de santé et de bien-être est amoindri. Des groupes de discussion ont été utilisés pour cette itération de l'étude. Les résultats indiquent que les hommes en Nouvelle-Zélande font face à des contraintes à la fois  personnelles et structurelles dans leur recherche d'information pendant les périodes où leur santé et leur bien-être peuvent être affaiblis. Cette étude met en évidence le besoin pour les fournisseurs de services de développer des mécanismes de diffusion de l'information plus efficaces et des services de soutien pour les hommes. Ces services doivent être attrayants et refléter les préférences des hommes dans leurs recherches d’information. Le rôle des professionnels de l'information dans le soutien à cette entreprise est discuté.

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