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Modern direct democracy is characterised by three pillars:
Direct democracy in its traditional form is Rule by the people through referenda. The people are given the right to pass laws, veto laws and withdraw support from a representative (if the system has representatives) at any time. Some of the issues surrounding the related notion of a direct democracy using the Internet and other communications technologies are dealt with in e-democracy/ Internet democracy. In the United States when specific direct democracy issues, other than the election of representatives, reach a local- or state-level ballot, they are commonly referred to by local and state governments as "ballot questions" or "ballot measures".
Various governments around the world exhibit one or more of the above pillars; for example, just over half the states in the United States have citizen-sponsored ballot initiatives and the vast majority have either initiatives and/or referenda.
Switzerland provides the strongest example of a modern direct democracy, as it exhibits the first two pillars at both the local and federal levels. In the past 120 years more than 240 initiatives have been put to referendum. The populace has been conservative, granting about 10% of the initiatives put; in addition, they have often opted for a version of the initiative rewritten by government.The second pillar can include the ability to hold a binding referendum on whether a given law should be scrapped. This effectively grants the populace a veto on government legislation.
Direct democracy was first experimented with in the ancient Athenian democracyThe Athenian democracy was a democratic government in the city-state Athens and its surrounding lands in Attica, Greece; usually considered to have lasted from the early- 6th to the mid- 4th century BC. During the 5th century, the population of Athens com of ancient GreeceAncient Greece is the term used to describe the Greek-speaking world in ancient times. It refers not only to the territory of the present Greek state, but also to those areas settled in ancient times by Greeks: Cyprus, the Aegean coast of Turkey (then kno (beginning circa 508 BCE (Finley, 1973)), which was governed for two centuries by a general assembly of all male citizens, by randomly selected officials, and one elected representative charged to command the army of the city (strategos).
The restrictive conditions for citizenship in Athenian democracy (only male citizens could participate) and the small size (about 300,000) of the Athens city-state minimized the logistical difficulties inherent to this form of government.
Also relevant is the history of Roman democracy beginning circa 449 BCE (Cary, 1967). The ancient Roman Republic's "citizen lawmaking" -- citizen formulation and passage of law, as well as citizen veto of legislature-made law -- began about 449 BCE and lasted the approximately four hundred years to the death of Julius CaesarAlternative meanings: Julius Caesar (disambiguation). Gaius Julius Caesar ( Latin: C·IVLIVS·C·F·C·N·CAESAR) ( July 13, 100 BC March 15, 44 BC) was a Roman military and political leader whose conquest of Gallia Comata extended the Roman world all the way t in 44 BCE. Many historians mark the end of the Republic on the passage of a law named the Lex Titia, 27 November 43 BCE (Cary, 1967). The presence of citizen lawmaking in Rome's governance was a strong, contributing factor to the rise of Rome, and its Greco-RomanGreco-Roman refers to the culture of Ancient Greece and Classical Rome and reflects the essential unity of the Mediterranean world at the time when those cultures flourished, between the 8th century BC and the 5th century AD. Ancient Rome Ancient Greece. civilization, to a greatness all out of proportion to the rest of the ancient world (Carey, 1967). PolybiusPolybius ca 203 BC 120 BC) was a Greek historian of the Mediterranean world, especially the rise of the Roman Republic, which he attributed to Roman fitness and the excellence of Roman civic and military institutions. He is most valued for his account of (c.200-120 BCE) immortalized the Roman Republic's constitutional "citizen lawmaking" in Book VI of his The Histories.
Since Athenian democracyThe Athenian democracy was a democratic government in the city-state Athens and its surrounding lands in Attica, Greece; usually considered to have lasted from the early- 6th to the mid- 4th century BC. During the 5th century, the population of Athens com, however, this form of government has rarely been used (some governments have implemented it in part but few as fully as in ancient Athens. Modern mass-suffrageSuffrage is the civil right to vote, or the exercise of that right. In that context it is also called political franchise''. Universal suffrage is the extension of voting privileges to all adults, without distinction to race, sex, belief or social status. democracies generally rely on representatives elected by citizens (that is, representative democracyRepresentative democracy comprises a form of democracy and theory of civics wherein voters choose (in free, secret, multi-party elections) representatives to act in their interests, but not as their proxies—i. not necessarily as directed but with enough a).
Modern-era citizen lawmaking began in the towns of Switzerland in the 1200s. In 1847, the Swiss added the "statute referendum" to their national constitution. They soon discovered that merely having the power to veto Parliament's laws was not enough. In 1891, they added the "constitutional amendment initiative". The Swiss political battles since 1891 have given the world a valuable experience base with the national-level constitutonal amendment initiative (Kobach, 1993).
Many political movements seek to restore some measure of direct democracy or a more deliberative democracy (based on consensus decision-making rather than simple majority rule). Such movements advocate more frequent public votes and referenda on issues, and less of the so-called "rule by politician". Collectively, these movements are referred to as advocating grassroots democracy or consensus democracy, to differentiate it from a simple direct democracy model. Another related movement is community politics which seeks to engage representatives with communities directly.
See also the history of direct democracy in the US.
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