What instruments of direct democracy exist in cont Essays

What instruments of direct democracy exist in contemporary democracies? Do they constitute meaningful alternatives to representative democracy? When considering the history of democracy, Ancient Athens is perhaps the culture that came closest to direct democracy. Although they excluded women, slaves and foreigners, the democratic system required all citizens to vote on all major issues in a general assembly. The boule consisted of 500 citizens commissioned to carry out these decisions and run the city. Even the verdict of every court case was decided by a vote of the Assembly. With this system , all citizens were actively and constantly involved in the running of all political life. Since the French R r evolution , the representative democracy has spread in throughout most parts of the world. They These governments consist out of complex structures , where in which the legislature is carried out by a parliament. With the influence of media and the overall advancement of technology , such as the I i nternet, the voting behaviour of citizens in contemporary democracies has changed caused many a lot transnational bodies , such as the EU , to question now even the sovereignty of each country and its chosen representatives. It needs to be analysed As a result, one could ask what structures of direct democracies can exist in such a time where the conditions have changed drastically since old Athens ? . Furthermore, D d o they constitute meaningful alternatives to representative democracy? For this investigation , a line needs to be drawn between the different types of instruments of used by direct democracies that are used . In the first part , I will focus on instruments of direct democracies that influence the executive branch. In the second part , I will focus on instruments of direct democracies that influence the legislative branch, mostly carried out by referendums. Hereby I Within this study, I will als o distinguish between decision promoting, decision controlling and imposed referendums by a government. It follows that the Notably, people have an enhanced influence on the decision making process when they get the opportunity to be directly involved . This is particularly true in the process of choosing representatives and thus controlling the executive. For example , in primary elections in the United States of America , a voter can select directly the candidate for the HYPERLINK "http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/pres1.htm" presidential nomination of from the two major parties . With this , mean the system allows a broader participation of voters to express their views on who should represent the party at the next election , as since in most primaries you do not have to be a party member to vote in most primaries . In the current electoral law of many many European parlamentaristic democracies , citizens do not vote for specific candidates, but rather they vote for parties that have a fixed numbered list of pertaining to their candidates. The more votes the party receives, the more candidates are elected. This already ordered list of candidates separates citizens from the political decision-making and the direct choice of representatives , who carry out the executive . To implement direct control of the people over the party constellations , the Italian Five Star movement party and the German Pirate Party employed online primaries that allow citizens to choose the list of candidates by themselves. The names that appear in on the lists on the ballot papers are decided via online polls ( parlamentarie ) , in which the members of the movement can vote for those who have put themselves forward as potential candidates. Another very important factor of direct democracy is the involvement of the people in the legislature itself. This is commonly achieved in form of : Participation in the process of law development , a vote by the citizens to promote their own decisions by initiating a new proposal, controlling the decision of the parliament in which case the citizen performs the role of a veto player, a referendum organized by the government to consult the citizens for their opinion about specific topics. Such a referendum can be optional or constitutionally required . Between the four different possibilities of referendums , it is