Varieties of democracy 755106 223165077 2008-07-02T21:15:42Z Filip nohe 47480 /* Scaling to global democracy */ Simplified {{Democracy}} Here is a partial list of '''varieties of democracy'''. The types of [[democracy]] listed here are not mutually exclusive. ==Direct democracy== {{main|Direct democracy}} Direct democracy, classically termed ''pure democracy''<ref>A. [http://www.aolsvc.worldbook.aol.com/wb/Article?id=ar153840 ''Democracy''] in World Book Encyclopedia, World Book Inc., 2006. B. [http:j//m-w.com/dictionary/pure%20democracy ''Pure democracy''] entry in Merriam-Webster Dictionary. C. [http://www.yourdictionary.com/ahd/p/p0667300.html ''Pure democracy''] entry in American Heritage Dictionary"</ref>, is any form of [[government]] based on a theory of [[civics]] in which all [[citizens]] can directly participate in the [[decision-making]] [[Process (general)|process]]. Some adherents want [[legislative]], [[judicial]], and [[executive (government)|executive]] powers to be handled by the people, but most extant systems only allow legislative decisions. Modern direct democracy, as it functions within [[representative democracy]], is characterised by three pillars: *[[Initiative]] *[[Referendum]] including binding referendums *[[Recall election|Recall]] 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. The third pillar gives the people the right to recall elected officials by petition and referendum. [[Switzerland]] provides the strongest example of 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, approving only about 10% of the initiatives put before them; in addition, they have often opted for a version of the initiative rewritten by government. Another distinctive example comes from the [[United States]], where, despite being a [[federal republic]] where no direct democracy exists at the federal level, over half the [[U.S. state|states]] (and many localities) provide for citizen-sponsored ballot initiatives (also called "ballot measures", "ballot questions" or "propositions") and the vast majority of the states have either initiatives and/or referendums. Most of the decisions most important to the people are made at the state and local level where direct democracy thrives. With the advent of the [[Internet]], there have been suggestions for [[e-democracy]], which comprises various mechanisms for implementing direct democracy concepts. ===Scaling to global democracy=== A larger number of citizens places greater difficulties on the implementation of a direct democracy, where representation is not practiced and thus all citizens must be actively involved on all issues all of the time. This increases the need for representative democracy, as the number of citizens grows. Historically, the most direct democracies would include the [[New England]] [[town meeting]], the political system of the [[Ancient Greece|ancient Greek]] [[city state]]s and [[oligarchy]] of [[Venice]]. There are concerns about how such systems would scale to larger populations; in this regard there are a number of experiments being conducted all over the world to increase the direct participation of citizens in what is now a representative system: *[http://ni4d.us/ The National Initiative for Democracy] *[http://mondediplo.com/1998/10/08brazil Porto Alegre], Brazil *[http://simpol.org/ simpol.org] &mdash; Plan to limit global competition and facilitate the emergence of a sustainable, sane global civilization. ==Referendums and semi-direct democracy== We can view direct and indirect democracies as ideal types, with actual democracies approximating more closely to the one or the other. Semi-direct democracy is also known as [[participatory democracy]]. A referendum or plebiscite (from Latin plebiscita, originally a decree of the Concilium Plebis) is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. This may be the adoption of a new constitution, a constitutional amendment, a law, the recall of an elected official or simply a specific government policy. Certain kinds of referendums held in some states of the United States are referred to as ballot measures or propositions. The referendum or plebiscite is a form of direct democracy. Some modern political entities are closest to direct democracies, such as Switzerland or some [[U.S. state]]s, where frequent use is made of [[referendum]]s, and means are provided for referendums to be initiated by petition instead of by members of the legislature or the government. Another form of semi-direct democracy is [[sortition]], in which people's representatives are not elected but randomly drafted among the population. ==Indirect democracy== Indirect democracy is a broad term describing a means of governance by the people through elected representatives. The most common system found in today's democratic states is the [[representative democracy]]. The people elect government officials who then make decisions on their behalf. Essentially, a representative democracy is a form of indirect democracy in which representatives are democratically selected, and usually difficult to recall. A doctrine often known as [[Edmund Burke]]'s Principle states that representatives should act upon their own conscience in the affairs of a representative democracy. This is contrasted to the expectation that such representatives should consider the views of their electors&mdash;an expectation particularly common in [[state]]s with strong constituency links, or with recall provisions (such as modern [[British Columbia]]). ===Parliamentary democracy=== Parliamentary democracy where government is appointed by parliamentary representatives as opposed to a 'presidential rule' by decree dictatorship. Under a parliamentary democracy government is exercised by delegation to an executive ministry and subject to ongoing review, checks and balances by the legislative parliament elected by the people. {{Cquote|Where there is no counsel the people fall but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety }} ==See also== *[[Concepts of Democracy in Republics]] *[[Emergent democracy]] *[[Jacksonian democracy]] *[[List of types of democracy]] *[[Universal suffrage]] ==References== <!--This article uses the Cite.php citation mechanism. If you would like more information on how to add footnotes to this article, please see http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Cite/Cite.php --> <references/> [[Category:Political theories]] [[Category:Democracy|*]]