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Stay up-to-date about the developments of direct democracy in the world.
14-05-2013
Hype in the Hauptstadt: Collecting signatures at midnight in Berlin
Crawling pubs on a Friday night in Prenzlauer Berg, one of Berlin’s hip districts, chatting up guys in bars that have as special names as “Zu mir oder zu Dir” (“to me or to you”) and getting their autographs. This is not the latest marketing idea to line up men and women in...
06-05-2013
Democracy International: New Council for countries
On Saturday, 4th May 2013, Democracy International formally established the Council in its headquarters in Cologne, Germany.
03-05-2013
ECI „Water is a Human Right“ ready for submission to Commission
More than seven countries reach necessary quorum - Yesterday, the European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) "Water is a human right" jumped over the last hurdle to qualify for the European Commission as a law proposal.
24-04-2013
Direct democracy in Hungary - powerful?
Hungary was and still is among the few countries in which people can initiate a referendum from below. The government has changed the constitution of 1990 in 2011 and with this also the rules of initiatives. What has changed and what are the consequences?
The FIDESZ Party...
15-04-2013
Ireland: Convention paves way for referendum on same-sex-marriage
As an exercise to modernise Ireland’s constitution, the constitutional convention met in Dublin on 13 and 14 April 2013 to discuss the introduction of same-sex-marriage in the Republic of Ireland. At the end of the weekend meeting the members, 100 Irish citizens and...
11-04-2013
ECI Day in Brussels: Civil Society, make it work!
The European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) has been one year in practice, but neither EU politicians nor civil society organisations are happy with the instrument. Originally praised as the first tool of transnational direct democracy, “ECI Day” in Brussels on 9 April 2013 showed...
02-04-2013
Not a fairy tale. The Icelandic direct democracy Saga (Part 1)
The small Mediterrean island of Cyprus has made the headlines this spring. The crash of its banking sector, sending shockwaves across the Eurozone and beyond, was strongly reminiscent of another small island also on the periphery of Europe, but in quite a different climatic zone...
01-04-2013
European Citizens' Initiative - one year old
The European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) gives citizens the right to directly engage in setting the legislative agenda for the EU. Once signatures supporting a policy proposal have been collected and verified from at least one million EU citizens, the European Commission is...
26-03-2013
"Democracy starts at home" - Interview with Petros from Greece
Petros Vourlis is an electrical engineer by profession. He lives in Athens. Petros Vourlis has been campaigning for direct democracy in his country for two years. He has translated into Greek the book “Direct Democracy. Facts and Arguments about the introduction of initiative...
12-03-2013
Falkland Islands Referendum: British people want to be British. 99,8 per cent vote "Yes"
Today the Falklands Islands Government announced the result of the referendum on the status of the islands, conducted during 10 and 11 March 10 2013. Accordingly 1,513 Falklanders opted for and three Falklanders voted against the Falkland Islands to remain a part of the United...