I’m reliably informed that the plural of referendum is referendums and not referenda. Anyway, leaving that aside, have a look at Chris’s really-good post on the subject. A few years ago, I interviewed him on this subject elsewhere and it was a very enlightening experience.
Posts under ‘Direct democracy’
What democrats can learn from the Classics
An opinion piece in today’s Guardian makes the case for the teaching of Latin and Greek in schools. Traditionally elitist subjects in the UK and US, Charlotte Higgins argues for the classics as a means of widening horizons: The value of classics today is incalculable, but it is nothing to do with turning out nice [...]
Reinventing democracy
At the start of May, there’s a forum on the future of democracy taking place in Grenoble. Sounds like a fascinating event, although on the academic rather than practical end of the conference spectrum. Pierre Rosanvallon, Professor at the College de France, has written an explanatory article for (of course) Le Monde, which is well [...]
The Myth of the Rational Voter
US economist Bryan Caplan’s ‘Myth of the rational voter‘ is well worth a look. Caplan probably doesn’t tell us anything that would surprise us much, but the way that he addresses the conflict between the notion of rationality that underpins the idea of homo economicus and the evidence from the way that people actually vote [...]
Home PgDn
Time for a look at Chapter three of the Conservative local government green paper, Shift Control. This chapter is the section of the green paper that focuses on democracy, so there’s a lot to talk about. The chapter says that a Conservative Government would: provide citizens in all our large cities with the opportunity to [...]
SysRq F12
Part three of a series of articles looking at the Conservative local government green paper, Shift Control. This time, chapter two. This chapter is about localism, and promises that a Conservative Government would: give local residents the power to determine the balance between the level of council tax and the level of services delivered; drastically [...]
Elsewhere
The Local Democracy blog may be a bit quieter than usual this week as a couple of the contributors will be away. However, I posted a long-ish article on the Liberal Conspiracy weblog yesterday timed to coincide with the Convention on Modern Liberty.
The commentariat and their version of democracy
I’d like to start a national campaign – if you’ll join me in it – in which the columnists who denounce the actions of elected politicians are obliged to step forward, say what they are in favour of themselves, and defend it. If this were to happen, I’d ask for The Times / Guardian columnist [...]
Douglas Carswell on Direct Democracy
Involve are doing a seminar on Direct Democracy tomorrow (early) evening. Details are here. Here are two entirely neutral views on Direct Democracy: “A direct democracy is where great thinkers are made to drink hemlock at the whim of the masses.” That was my friend, Matt that said that. Or… “A direct democracy is worse [...]
Unwise crowds?
Here’s Kevin Harris on possible (!) legislation that would allow local people to vote on what form of punishment is handed out to convicted criminals in their neighbourhood. Last year, the Swiss voted on whether individual citizenship applications should be ratified by secret ballots. Commenting on this at the time, Alex Harrowell noted that referendums [...]
