Performance of Modern Direct Democracy
Functions and effects of initiative and referendum processes (MDD) under conditions of a mature democracy and provided the instruments are well designed. A comparison between plebiscites and MDD.
DD, Plebiscites and Minorities
Citizens’ initiatives allow people to directly make laws, good and bad ones, and citizen-initiated referendums can be used to reject laws, good or bad ones, made by representatives. Plebiscites are fundamentally different, they can be used only by representatives/governments, not by citizens.
Is DD a Source of Tyranny?
Direct democracy has been associated with tyranny in a variety of ways. Certain liberal critics see it as a threat to individual liberty. It is even said that direct democracy contains the seeds of totalitarianism. The corollary of such accusations are demands to limit and control the scope of political participation.