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Who should have the last word on fundamental policy issues? This book analyzes the rise of two contenders - the people, through direct democracy, and the courts. Now available in nearly half the states, direct democracy has surged in recent decades. Through ballot measures, voters have slashed taxes, mandated government spending, imposed term limits on elected officials, enacted campaign finance reform, barred affirmative action, banned same-sex marriage, and adopted many other controversial laws. In several states, citizens now bypass legislatures to make the most important policy decisions. However, the 'people's rule' is not absolute. This book demonstrates that courts have used an expanding power of judicial review to invalidate citizen-enacted laws at remarkably high rates. The resulting conflict between the people and the courts threatens to produce a popular backlash against judges and raises profound questions about the proper scope of popular sovereignty and judicial power in a constitutional system.

Direct democracy --- Judicial review --- Direct legislation --- Democracy --- Referendum --- Social Sciences --- Political Science

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Neoliberalism has pushed capitalism to its limits, hollowing out global economies and lives in the process, while people have no voice. John Asimakopoulos addresses the problem with a theory to practice model that reconciles Marxism, with its diverse radical currents, and democratic theory. Social Structures of Direct Democracy develops a political economy of structural equality in large-scale society making strong empirical arguments for radical transformation. Key concepts include filling positions of political and economic authority (e.g., legislatures and corporate boards) with randomly selected citizens leaving the demos as the executive. Asimakopoulos shows that an egalitarian society leads to greater innovation, sustainable economic growth, and positive social benefits in contrast to economies based on individualism, competition, and inequality.

Direct democracy. --- Equality. --- Social structure. --- Organization, Social --- Social organization --- Anthropology --- Sociology --- Social institutions --- Egalitarianism --- Inequality --- Social equality --- Social inequality --- Political science --- Democracy --- Liberty --- Direct legislation --- Referendum

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"Direkte Demokratie in all ihren Erscheinungsformen ist und bleibt in Deutschland ein Reizthema. Das neue „Jahrbuch für direkte Demokratie“ will als kritisches interdisziplinäres Forum für alle Fragen unmittelbarer Demokratie zur Versachlichung der Debatte beitragen. Es vereint in seinem ersten Teil fundierte wissenschaftliche Beiträge von Kritikern wie Befürwortern unmittelbarer Sachentscheidungen des Volkes. Eine verlässliche Dokumentation von Volksentscheiden und Volksbegehren auf Landesebene sowie eine Auswahl an Bürgerentscheiden bzw. -begehren gibt im zweiten Teil Aufschluss über Verbreitung und Praxis direkter Demokratie. Jahresberichte erweitern das Jahrbuch um die internationale Perspektive, spüren aber auch den Entwicklungstendenzen in den einzelnen Ländern der Bundesrepublik nach. Ausgewählte Gerichtsentscheidungen und Gutachten illustrieren die Debatte um die rechtlichen Grenzen der direkten Demokratie. Schließlich enthält jedes Jahrbuch in seinem dritten Teil einen umfangreichen Rezensions- und Neuerscheinungsabschnitt, der über aktuelle Publikationen zum Thema informiert und gleichzeitig Raum für kritische Auseinandersetzung bietet. Rechts- und Politikwissenschaftler, Ökonomen und alle an der Mitwirkung des Volkes an Sachentscheidungen Interessierten erhalten mit dem neuen Jahrbuch regelmäßig handlichen Aufschluss über den aktuellen Stand von Theorie und Praxis direkter Demokratie."

Direct democracy --- Referendum --- Ballot initiatives --- Ballot measures --- Initiative and referendum --- Initiatives, Ballot --- Propositions (Referendum) --- Referenda --- Referendums --- Democracy --- Elections --- Representative government and representation --- Plebiscite --- Direct legislation --- Öffentliches Recht --- Verfassungs- und Verwaltungsrecht --- Staats- und Verfassungsrecht

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Oral Democracy studies citizens' voices in civic and political deliberations in India's gram sabhas (village assemblies), the largest deliberative institution in human history. It analyses nearly three hundred transcripts of gram sabhas, sampled within the framework of a natural experiment, allowing the authors to study how state policy affects the quality of discourse, citizens' discursive performances and state enactments embodied by elected leaders and public officials. By drawing out the varieties of speech apparent in citizen and state interactions, their analysis shows that citizens' oral participation in development and governance can be improved by strengthening deliberative spaces through policy. Even in conditions of high inequality and illiteracy, gram sabhas can create discursive equality by developing the 'oral competence' of citizens and establishing a space in which they can articulate their interests. The authors develop the concept of 'oral democracy' to aid the understanding of deliberative systems in non-Western and developing countries. This title is also available as Open Access.

Gram sabha --- Direct democracy --- Discourse analysis --- Political aspects. --- India --- Politics and government --- Discourse grammar --- Text grammar --- Semantics --- Semiotics --- Direct legislation --- Democracy --- Referendum --- Local government --- Villages --- comparative politics --- political theory --- development studies --- South Asian studies --- political sociology --- research methods

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Standing out from all other books on direct democracy, Citizenship and Contemporary Direct Democracy connects the study of direct democracy to the broader field of comparative democratization and to an important strand in normative democratic theory. Analyzing the relationship between direct democracy and representative government, this book is organized around three main sections: the origins of contemporary direct democracy, its functioning, and the ways to improve the use of direct democracy and its abuse. David Altman argues that citizen-initiated mechanisms of direct democracy constitute an important and viable way to re-invigorate current representative regimes by strengthening democracies' normative foundations - freedom and equity among citizens - which are particularly fragile in the context of unequal societies. Citizenship and Contemporary Direct Democracy demonstrates how citizen-initiated mechanisms of direct democracy empowers citizens, channels social demands, defuses violence, re-enchants citizens with politics, and breaks through some of the institutionalized barriers to accountability that arise in representative systems.

Direct democracy. --- Political participation. --- Citizen participation --- Community action --- Community involvement --- Community participation --- Involvement, Community --- Mass political behavior --- Participation, Citizen --- Participation, Community --- Participation, Political --- Political activity --- Political behavior --- Political rights --- Social participation --- Political activists --- Politics, Practical --- Direct legislation --- Democracy --- Referendum