direct democracy

Examples of direct democracy in the following topics:

• Theories of Democracy

  • A purer form is direct democracy in which the voting public makes direct decisions or participates directly in the political process.
  • Elements of direct democracy exist on a local level and, in exceptions, on the national level in many countries, though these systems coexist with representative assemblies.
  • Direct democracy, on the other hand, holds that citizens should participate directly in making laws and policies, and not do so through their representatives.
  • Proponents of direct democracy offer varied reasons to support this view, declaring that political activity can be valuable in itself, since it socializes and educates citizens, and popular participation can check powerful elites.
  • Distinguish between parliamentary democracy, minimal democracy, direct democracy, radical democracy and deliberative democracy, and relate them to the concept of "true" democracy and freedom

• Democracy

  • A given political system is referred to as a democracy if it allows a certain approximation to ideal democracy.
  • A purer form is direct democracy in which the voting public makes direct decisions or participates directly in the political process.
  • Elements of direct democracy exist on a local level and in exceptions on the national level in many countries, although these systems coexist with representative assemblies.
  • In other cases, democracy is used to mean direct democracy.
  • Majority rule is often listed as a characteristic of democracy.

• Democracy

  • The United States is an example of a representative democracy.
  • Even though there is no universally accepted definition of democracy, all definitions include two fundamental principles: First, in a democracy, all citizens have equal access to power.
  • For example, many democracies limit representation.
  • In a full, direct, democracy, every citizen would be able to vote on every law.
  • Different colors indicate different forms of democracy.

• Participatory Democracy

  • Participatory democracy emphasized the broad participation of constituents in the direction and operation of political systems.
  • Through this process, laws can be made by direct vote rather than by elected representatives in a legislature.
  • Participatory democracy is a process emphasizing the broad participation of constituents in the direction and operation of political systems.
  • However, participatory democracy tends to advocate more involved forms of citizen participation than traditional representative democracy.
  • Political variants of participatory democracy include consensus democracy, deliberative democracy, demarchy, and grassroots democracy.

• Democratic Socialism

  • Democratic socialism combines the political philosophy of democracy with the economic philosophy of socialism.
  • Democratic socialism combines the political philosophy of democracy with the economic philosophy of socialism.
  • Rather than focus on central planning, democratic socialism advocates the immediate creation of decentralized economic democracy from the grassroots level—undertaken by and for the working class itself.
  • Specifically, it is a term used to distinguish between socialists who favor a grassroots-level, spontaneous revolution (referred to as gradualism) from those socialists who favor Leninism (organized revolution instigated and directed by an overarching vanguard party that operates on the basis of democratic centralism).
  • The term has also been used by various historians to describe the ideal of economic socialism in an established political democracy.

• The Spread of Liberal Democracy

  • The United States, Canada, France, and other Western countries are examples of liberal democracies.
  • Liberal democracy is a common form of representative democracy.
  • Liberal democracies also usually have universal suffrage, granting all adult citizens the right to vote.
  • Reforms and revolutions helped move most European countries towards liberal democracy.
  • Defend the notion of liberal democracy using examples from its enlightenment origins

• Socialism

  • France is an example of a socialist democracy.
  • It could refer to cooperative enterprises, common ownership, direct public ownership, or autonomous state enterprises.
  • Accounting would be based on physical quantities or a direct measure of labor-time instead of on profits and expenses.
  • Europe has far more socialist democracies than the United States.

• Social Correlates of Religion

  • Research indicates that in prosperous democracies, higher rates of belief in and worship of a creator correlate with higher rates of homicide, juvenile and early adult mortality, STD infection rates, teen pregnancy, and abortion.
  • As author Stephen Law paraphrases in his book "War For the Children's Mind," "The most theistic prosperous democracy, the U.S., is exceptional, but not in the manner Franklin predicted.
  • The United States is almost always the most dysfunctional of the developed democracies, sometimes spectacularly so...The view of the U.S. as a 'shining city on the hill' to the rest of the world is falsified when it comes to basic measures of societal health. " In other words, the U.S., a theistic and prosperous nation, demonstrates that religiosity doesn't necessarily correlate with creating cultures that reduce death.
  • The authors conclude that the reasonable success of non-religious democracies like Japan, France and Scandinavia has refuted the idea that Godless societies suffer disaster.
  • Another study by Keister found that "religion affects wealth indirectly through educational attainment, fertility and female labor force participation. " The study also found evidence of direct effects of religion on wealth attainment.

• Monarchies and Liberal Democracies

  • Monarchies, in which sovereignty embodied in a single individual, eventually gave way to liberal democracies.
  • Liberal democracy traces its origins, and its name, to the European 18th century, also known as the Age of Enlightenment.
  • Reforms and revolutions helped move most European countries towards liberal democracy.

• Types of Governments

  • In political theory, democracy describes a small number of related forms of government and also a political philosophy.
  • Even though there is no universally accepted definition of 'democracy', there are two principles that any definition of democracy includes.
  • There are several varieties of democracy, some of which provide better representation and more freedoms for their citizens than others.
  • However, if any democracy is not carefully legislated to avoid an uneven distribution of political power with balances, such as the separation of powers, then a branch of the system of rule could accumulate power and become harmful to the democracy itself.
  • An essential process in representative democracies are competitive elections, that are fair both substantively and procedurally.