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The People's Voice - The Economist 8/12/99

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There are others at the Economist web site but you must pay for them. Search for "direct democracy"

Happiness is a Warm Vote - The Economist 3/15/99

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There are others at the Economist web site but you must pay for them. Search for "direct democracy"

How Far Can You Trust the People? - The Economist 8/15/98

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There are others at the Economist web site but you must pay for them. Search for "direct democracy"

Lex Populi - The Economist 5/28/98

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There are others at the Economist web site but you must pay for them. Search for "direct democracy"

It means government by the people, and we are the people - The Economist 12/21/96

A Survey of democracy: "Happy 21st century, voters! (part 1 of 8)

"Democracy in the 20th century has been a half-finished thing. In the 21st, it can grow to its full height, says Brian Beedham"

This survey argues that the next big change in human affairs will probably not be a matter of economics, or electronics, or military science; it will be a change in the supposedly humdrum world of politics. The coming century could see, at last, the full flowering of the idea of democracy. The democratic system of politics, which first took widespread root in the 19th century, and then in the 20th century beat off the attacks of both fascism and communism, may in the 21st century realise that it has so far been living, for understandable reasons, in a state of arrested development, but that those reasons no longer apply; and so democracy can set about completing its growth.

Here is how it can be done better - The Economist 12/21/96

A Survey of democracy: Happy 21st century, voters! (part 3 of 8)

Some of the Swiss do it even more directly

IF THIS does not sound quite like the way your own national government operates, take a look at the next level down in Swiss politics. The country's 26 cantons (six of them technically 'half-cantons', but for all practical purposes separate entities) are powerful bodies. They raise and spend almost as much tax money as the central government does-and a larger share, let envious over-centralised countries note, than half a century ago, when the central government swept up more of the total tax take than it does now. The cantons control all of the country's police forces, virtually all of its education system, much of the law-making power over each canton's economy, and a large chunk of Swiss welfare spending. And these sturdy bodies are, in the matter of direct democracy, generally even more people-friendly than the central government. Here are three examples.

The arguments that won't wash - The Economist 12/21/96

A Survey of democracy: Happy 21st century, voters! (part 5 of 8)

"Most objections to direct democracy are, when you look closely, objections to democracy"

BRIAN BEEDHAM

AH YES, the objectors say at once: perhaps the Swiss can do these things, but that does not mean anybody else can; the Swiss, you see, have a unique gift for direct democracy. To which the answer is: come off it. There is nothing special about the Swiss. They are a perfectly ordinary mixture of west-central European peoples (and the fact that they are a mixture makes it harder, not easier, for them to run their country in this way). They too yawn at the blearier aspects of politics; the turnout goes down with a bump when there is nothing of particular interest on the referendum list. They too get sudden bees in the bonnet; it was the Swiss, in 1989, who asked themselves whether they should abolish their army, and found 35.6% of themselves saying yes. Here are no models of zealously dutiful civic rectitude.

Why the time for change has come - The Economist 12/21/96

A Survey of democracy: Happy 21st century, voters! (part 7 of 8)

"In an equal and electronic world, the unequal old steam-engine won’t work"

BRIAN BEEDHAM

THE argument for direct democracy is not just a matter of beating off the mostly unconvincing objections its opponents throw at it. The bigger part of the argument consists of pointing out that the world has changed hugely since the other version of democracy, the representative sort, first came into widespread use in the 19th century. These changes make the vote-every-few-years brand look increasingly unworkable, and strengthen the claim to workability of the emerging alternative.

So long as it's clear who's in charge - The Economist 12/21/96

A Survey of democracy: Happy 21st century, voters! (part 2 of 8)

Take Switzerland for both a model and a warning

BRIAN BEEDHAM

THE first lesson from Switzerland is that direct democracy is hard work. The second is that, though it makes politicians less important than they like to be, it does not remove the need for an intelligent parliament; the system works most efficiently when politicians stop assuming they know best, but do their proper job with modest zeal.

This proper job, as with any parliament, is to sit down, discuss the problems of the day, and propose solutions for them. The difference in a direct democracy is that the parliament's solutions are not necessarily the last word in the matter until the next general election, which may be years away. In Switzerland, 50,000 signatures on a petition, a bit over 1% of the current total of qualified voters, are enough to haul any new countrywide law before a vote of the whole people. Twice that number of signatures will put a brand-new idea for a law to the people's decision, even if parliament wants nothing to do with it. Because of a Swiss quirk, new federal laws coming from outside parliament have to take the form of amendments to the constitution, with the result that Switzerland's constitution has come to look like an over-stuffed cupboard; but there is no reason why the same process could not put such new laws on the ordinary statute-book, as happens in many American states and in most of Switzerland's own cantons.

Life at the democratic roots - The Economist 12/21/96

A Survey of democracy: Happy 21st century, voters! (part 4 of 8)

The places where you realise what a sense of community means

KILCHBERG, a community of 7,000 people, sits n a hillside that slopes sharply down to the southern shore of the lake of Zurich. It would not be fair to call it a typical specimen of the 3,000-odd Gemainden (communes in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, comuni in the Italian part) which are the foundation of the country’s politics. Most of its people are comfortably well-off, many of them refugees from the higher taxes of the next-door community, the city of Zurich; less than a quarter are native citizens of Kilchberg. Only about 100 of the 7,00 are employed. From the graveyard of the Reformed church at the top of the hill the mortal remains of Thomas Mann and Conrad Ferdinand Meyer look out on a summer’s day at the silent snows of the mountains of eastern Switzerland.