What is Direct Democracy? "Direct Democracy" explores how citizens can directly shape decision-making in politics, contrasting it with representative models. It offers a thorough analysis of this participatory system's principles, practices, and challenges, shedding light on its role in modern governance and citizen engagement. Chapters Overview: 1. Direct Democracy - Introduction to direct democracy, its history, and current relevance. 2. Politics of Switzerland - Detailed look at Switzerland’s extensive practice of direct democracy. 3. Referendum - Explanation of the referendum process and its impact. 4. Representative Democracy - Comparison of direct and representative democracy. 5. Initiative - Insight into citizen-initiated legislative actions. 6. Deliberative Democracy - Exploration of deliberative democracy and its role in direct democratic practices. 7. Participatory Democracy - Examination of broader citizen involvement beyond voting. 8. Initiatives and Referendums in the United States - Analysis of U.S. initiatives and referendums. 9. Swiss Federal Constitution - Overview of the Swiss constitutional framework supporting direct democracy. 10. Voting in Switzerland - Details of the Swiss voting process. 11. National Initiative - Concept and implications of national initiatives. 12. Arizona Ballot Proposition - Case study of direct democracy in Arizona. 13. Popular Referendum - Focus on the popular referendum process. 14. Legislative Referral - Explanation of legislative referrals and their significance. 15. History of Direct Democracy in the United States - Evolution and milestones in U.S. direct democracy. 16. Citizens' Assembly - Concept and challenges of citizens' assemblies. 17. Optional Referendum - Overview of the optional referendum process. 18. Referendums by Country - Comparative analysis of global referendum practices. 19. Outline of Democracy - Overview of democratic systems and the place of direct democracy. 20. Deliberative Referendum - Innovative approach combining direct and deliberative democracy. 21. Citizens' Initiative Referendum (France) - Case study of France's citizens' initiative referendum. "Direct Democracy" offers deep insights into how direct citizen participation transforms governance, making it an essential resource for anyone interested in the intricacies of democratic systems.

This book articulates a participatory conception of deliberative democracy that takes the democratic ideal of self-government seriously. It aims to improve citizens' democratic control and vindicate the value of citizens' participation against conceptions that threaten to undermine it. The book critically analyzes deep pluralist, epistocratic, and lottocratic conceptions of democracy. Their defenders propose various institutional ''shortcuts'' to help solve problems of democratic governance such as overcoming disagreements, citizens' political ignorance, or poor-quality deliberation. However, all these shortcut proposals require citizens to blindly defer to actors over whose decisions they cannot exercise control. Implementing such proposals would therefore undermine democracy. Moreover, it seems naive to assume that a community can reach better outcomes 'faster' if it bypasses the beliefs and attitudes of its citizens. Unfortunately, there are no 'shortcuts' to make a community better than its members. The only road to better outcomes is the long, participatory road that is taken when citizens forge a collective will by changing one another's hearts and minds. However difficult the process of justifying political decisions to one another may be, skipping it cannot get us any closer to the democratic ideal. Starting from this conviction, the book defends a conception of democracy ''without shortcuts''. This conception sheds new light on long-standing debates about the proper scope of public reason, the role of religion in politics, and the democratic legitimacy of judicial review. It also proposes new ways to unleash the democratic potential of institutional innovations such as deliberative minipublics.

As American politics becomes ever more dominated by powerful vested interests, positive change seems permanently stymied. Left out in the cold by the political process, citizens are frustrated and despairing. How can we take back our democracy from the grip of oligarchy and bring power to the people? In Direct Deliberative Democracy, Jack Crittenden and Debra Campbell offer up a better way for government to reflect citizens' interests. It begins with a startlingly basic question: "e;Why don't we the people govern?"e; In this provocative book, the authors mount a powerful case that the time has come for more direct democracy in the United States, showing that the circumstances that made the Constitutional framers' arguments so convincing more than two hundred years ago have changed dramatically-and that our democracy needs to change with them. With money, lobbyists, and corporations now dominating local, state, and national elections, the authors argue that now is the time for citizens to take control of their government by deliberating together to make public policies and laws directly. At the heart of their approach is a proposal for a new system of "e;legislative juries,"e; in which the jury system would be used as a model for selecting citizens to create ballot initiatives. This would enable citizens to level the playing field, bring little-heard voices into the political arena, and begin the process of transforming our democracy into one that works for, not against, its citizens.

Public authorities from all levels of government increasingly turn to Citizens' Assemblies, Juries, Panels and other representative deliberative processes to tackle complex policy problems ranging from climate change to infrastructure investment decisions. They convene groups of people representing a wide cross-section of society for at least one full day – and often much longer – to learn, deliberate, and develop collective recommendations that consider the complexities and compromises required for solving multifaceted public issues.

Democracy as the Political Empowerment of the Citizen: Direct-Deliberative e-Democracy conceptualizes the age-old idea of democracy in a new way. The fundamental idea underlying this new conceptualization is the now-neglected notion of the people's sovereignty. Although democracy means rule by the people, the people cannot rule unless they are empowered to do so. In order to introduce the notion of sovereignty, and its direct exercise into the liberal-democratic conceptual scheme, this book attempts to 'individuate' the idea of the people's sovereignty via individuating the notion of the political empowerment of the people. Using the existing theoretical framework of American liberal democracy as its theoretical grounds, Majid Behrouzi argues that present-day American society has at its disposal the material and technological means and infrastructures (e.g. 'e-technologies'), and the political-cultural institutions needed for the actualization of the idea of the direct exercise of the individuated sovereign powers. Together with its companion volume, Democracy as the Political Empowerment of the People: The Betrayal of an Ideal, this book is essential to scholars interested in the evolution of modern democracy and the future of politics and political technology.