Direct democracy is a democracy in which the people fill in the role of the government by holding assemblies or referendums. One of the advantages of a direct democracy is that it eliminates interest groups and party agenda’s. No one can take the power for themselves; it is the truest and purest form of democracy out there. However there are some drawbacks. Most countries around the world are far too big to be able to use a direct democracy efficiently. Any political decisions would be sluggish and untimely, thus crippling the country, and even more dramatically in a crisis. Furthermore the lack of parties with agendas, is a good thing ideally, but let’s face it, they are the driving force behind our politics, parties bring up concerns and push forward on debates, passing laws in a timely fashion. Representative democracy however also has it’s drawbacks. The power of government is removed from the people in a representative democracy, thus allowing a less accurate decisions/representation for the people. The decisions in a representative democracy are guided by parties and their goals, So in a sense representative democracy I more like giving turns at decision making rather than true democracy, however the turns being decided by the people is a sort of justification. Representative democracy is more prone to corruption simply because it is easier to corrupt fewer people rather than everyone. One must consider that direct democracy is not incorruptible either, as officials are still required to count the votes etc. These people are key figures that must be carefully watched at all times.
Which is better?
Which do you agree with more?
Do you have any alternatives?
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2 comments:
Good post!
Maybe it was because I did research on this topic that I am a little biased, but I think referendums are a great thing! Not only do they enhance voter participation but they leave no questions for the government to misconstrue. With referendums, Canadians are able to voice their opinions on SPECIFIC issues. Though someone may overall agree with the Conservatives, there may be some issues in which they disagree with the Conservative party's stance. Thus, having a referendum allows Canadians to voice their opinion and the results are final and clear. Therefore, the government knows what the majority of Canadians want and they reduce the risk of making important decisions and not knowing the true wants of the Canadian people.
I think referendums are a great idea. Switzerland holds referendums frequently and their successful processes prove that ordinary citizens are able to make complex decisions involving emotional and financial contexts.
Referendums = great way to promote direct democracy!
Erin
Thanks Erin
I agree with you. however you cannot deny that direct democracy is slow and at times inappropriately so. I stumbled across a wiki article that is quite obscure and short. however I think it might be on to something.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Representative_direct_democracy
This short wiki article describes a rather unorthodox theoretical method combining representative and direct democracy. How? Well it seems to describe a double system. On the one hand you have the representative who would cast a vote for his/her constituency. Then however if the decision is unpopular there would be a sort of local referendum to override the representative. This system sound very interesting as it would allow the people to check their representative while still allowing for the speedier first choice of the representative in crunch times. There are two main problems with this system however.
1) it cannot exist in Canada because of party discipline, unless the referendum could override that, which would make the political scene interesting to say to say the least.
2) since the technological infrastructure does not exist, the implementation would have to heavily rely on bureaucracy. and who really wants more bureaucracy?!
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