{"id":346,"date":"2011-02-17T14:19:55","date_gmt":"2011-02-17T13:19:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.mr-int.ch\/?p=346"},"modified":"2016-10-13T15:24:56","modified_gmt":"2016-10-13T13:24:56","slug":"direct-democracy-and-its-stabilizing-effects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.mr-int.ch\/?p=346&lang=en","title":{"rendered":"Direct Democracy and its Stabilizing Effects"},"content":{"rendered":"

Political opinions being what they are, the art of living in a democracy is to define and follow common rules of the game despite ideological differences, often irreconcilable.<\/p>\n

Democracy is direct when citizens are consulted not only to elect their representatives to parliament, their government leaders, and their judges, but also when the popular opinion can express itself in referendum votes.<\/p>\n

You can read a more detailed document: here<\/a>
\nand find a summary of the Swiss political institutions: here<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Direct-Democracy\"<\/a><\/p>\n

All components in the above scheme are undissociable to achieve direct democracy.<\/p>\n

Referendum<\/h3>\n
\n
    \n
  • Popular referendum is the absolute counter-power<\/li>\n
  • Referendum should be:\n
      \n
    • Mandatory for any constitutional change and treaties of adhesion to international institutions<\/li>\n
    • Facultative for any law or treaties accepted by Parliament when e.g. 1% of all citizens want so.<\/li>\n
    • Organized when a certain amount of citizens (e.g. 2%) takes the initiative to introduce a constitutional change.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
    • It overshadows all political work of Parliament and Government.\n
        \n
      • but it should never be construed as a mean to chastize or dismiss the government in place.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n

        Proportional Representation<\/h3>\n
          \n
        • All political forces are represented\n
            \n
          • Which makes absolute majority difficult to achieve<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
          • With a\u00a0 two chambers Parliament\n
              \n
            • People Representation<\/li>\n
            • Territory Representation (Senate)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

              Government as a College<\/h3>\n
                \n
              • It is NOT<\/span> a coalition<\/li>\n
              • Solutions and proposals to the Parliament must be negotiated within the college<\/li>\n
              • Members must work together, although not elected on the same platform<\/li>\n
              • No individual decision, therefore accountability is shared by its members:\n
                  \n
                • Reduced personification<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

                  Decentral<\/h3>\n
                    \n
                  • Power should be exercised as close to the site of action as possible<\/li>\n
                  • Federal State\n
                      \n
                    • Delegation of competencies from small to large<\/li>\n
                    • Subsidiarity<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
                    • Local Budget\n
                        \n
                      • Taxation an perception decided locally<\/li>\n
                      • Public debt can be contracted by municipalities, townships, region, etc.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

                        Consultation Procedure<\/h3>\n
                          \n
                        • All stakeholders must be consulted when new law is being prepared (or old ones amended)\n
                            \n
                          • Political parties<\/li>\n
                          • Regions<\/li>\n
                          • Unions and professional organizations<\/li>\n
                          • NGOs<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
                          • The result of which is in general a negotiated compromise<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

                            It takes time to develop the political culture required for such system.
                            \nThe elaboration of new laws is relatively slow at the start, but much faster and more effective at implementation.
                            \nThe system is relatively boring. Personal egos have a hard time in it. It cannot be flamboyant and spectacular, the media hate it.<\/p>\n

                            This is probably why, in countries where no direct democracy is installed, almost all politicians pretend that it is \u00ab\u00a0impossible\u00a0\u00bb in their country. But they never say why.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                            Political opinions being what they are, the art of living in a democracy is to define and follow common rules of the game despite ideological differences, often irreconcilable.
                            \nDemocracy is direct when citizens are consulted not only to elect their representatives to parliament, their government leaders, and their judges, but also when the popular opinion can express itself in referendum votes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":7,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mr-int.ch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mr-int.ch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mr-int.ch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mr-int.ch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mr-int.ch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mr-int.ch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mr-int.ch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mr-int.ch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mr-int.ch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}