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 [...]
Posts under ‘Direct democracy’
"The public are wrong"
It’s a view that doesn’t get much support amongst the blogosphere, but there is a Parliamentary perspective upon democracy that is rarely advanced or defended. Listening to the BBC’s Moral Maze programme – this week’s question “Can there be too much democracy?” (you will need to hurry – it’s not archived and will only be [...]
Local Referendums – coming to a town hall near you?
Well, we knew it was coming – here: “New proposals to make it easier to get local leaders to hold a referendum on their leadership structure, putting communities firmly in control of their town and council, has been published for consultation by Communities Secretary Hazel Blears.” It is particularly interesting that these votes will be [...]
Distributed moral wisdom – mayors and political parties.
I find it almost impossible to take a blog seriously when its central claim is that any British government in the recent past of forseeable future is really lurching towards totalitarianism. It is with this proviso that I offer a semi-approving link to this post. The elected police chief – like the elected Mayor – [...]
