GB Citizens' Direct Democracy: Debate with Experts/replies, correspondence

DEBATE

REPLIES and CORRESPONDENCE

Preliminary Proposals for the introduction of

Elements of Direct Democracy in Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Collated January 2007 by Michael Macpherson

REPLIES and CORRESPONDENCE

-------- Original Message --------

From: Roly Alibert, 14 May 2007

Dear Michael

Thank you for forwarding the "experts" comments. They all seem to broadly agree on the major lines, and rightly so I think. The comments from Paul Ruppen are the most detailed and to the point. It comes as no surprise that they come from someone who live in a country where DD has matured. It is also for that reason, that I tend to think that we must adopt a system as close to that of Switzerland's as possible. Anything short of that would almost be a "sell out". It would then be up to "the sovereign" people to decide on the progression of it and not on politicians.

As Dr Ruppen rightly pointed out, it is a bit like an act of faith, we either believe that the people should decide everything or we don't. The moment we believe it shouldn't then we are back in the "better a philosopher king than the people" type of argument (Plato), and this is when we try to "soften" the blow, for example by adding measures like 60% participation; time restrictions; monetary restrictions; etc. I for one stand on the people's side of the argument. Again we should be encouraged by experience of Switzerland where what we often see as a peculiar, rich and conservative nation, has been much more progressive on issues like immigration, drugs, euthanasia and green energies, to name but a few, than successive governments of "big modern" nations like the UK, France or Germany. The bottom line is also clear to see, Switzerland is economically and socially more successful than those nations even though 25% of it population was not born there and it has no natural resources.

I rest my case.

Roly Alibert

REMINDER

The four sets of proposals originate from four different groups (date of proposal in brackets)

Unlock Democracy, a joint programme of Charter88 and New Politics Network (2006)

Power Inquiry (2006)

Our Say (2006)

I&R~GB Campaign for Citizens’ Initiative and Referendum (1994-1999)

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The “four sets of proposals” may be found in www at

http://www.iniref.org/dd4proposals.doc

In response to direct approach of I&R~GB the following experts have very kindly commented on one or more of the 4 proposals. Click author’s name to reach his comment. Readers may of course if they wish correspond directly with the commentators. You will need to remove SPACES (anti-spam) from e-mail addresses.

Readers please send your comments if any and copies of important correspondence to
M Macpherson e-mail mm@iniref.org

EXPERTS

Michael Efler e-mail michael.efler @ mehr-demokratie.de
Ph.D. Political scientist and economist. (Doctoral thesis: International Investment Agreements – current status and reform options) Board member, Mehr Demokratie e.V. Germany.

Miroslav Kolar e-mail miro @ mkolar.org
Physicist, democracy reformer. Lives in Canada. Ph.D. in Theoretical Solid State Physics (Prague) Principal Scientist; LS Computing Ltd.. Field: “Modelling of reaction-diffusion and electrochemical processes”. CV http://www.mkolar.org/CV/ Founder Direct Democracy Meeting Place http://democracy.mkolar.org/

Paul Ruppen e-mail forum @ europa-magazin.ch
Swiss political scientist PhD in Sociology and Political Science (University of Bern). Editor of “Europa-Magazin” www.europa-magazin.ch and President of the “Forum für Direkte Demokratie” in Zürich.

Milan Valach e-mail Valach @ iol.cz
Ph.D. Direct democracy campaigner and academic, Czech Republic
Faculty of Education, Department of Civics, Masaryk University Brno
Czech Movement for Direct Democracy http://www.pdemokracie.ecn.cz/

Tim Weber e-mail tim.weber @ mehr-demokratie.de
Political scientist. Mehr Demokratie Bremen, Germany

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