Book Review: “Intelligent Governance for the 21st Century”
On Thursday, 8th November 2012, Maureen Childs, a London UK and member of Democracy International, attended a talk given by Nicolas Berggruen and Nathan Gardels, at the RSA in London, entitled 'How to Govern Intelligently in the 21st century'.On Thursday, 8th November 2012,...
Pro or Anti "Prop"? 176 popular votes in the United States
US Election Day on 6 November 2012 asked from voters much more than designating the next US President. 176 citizen-initiated “propositions” or “ballot measures” were decided on a wide range of themes in 38 US states.US Election Day on 6 November 2012 asked from voters much more...
Digital decision-making: “3D” in the spotlight
Democratie.Nu is a Belgian democracy group, working on integrating digital technologies in democratic decision-making. In the recent Belgian municipal elections of October 2012, the organization set “3D” on the Belgian voting lists, an innovative approach to combine direct with...
Sad: Death of Franck Biancheri
We are shocked to learn about the death of Franck Biancheri, who passed away on Tuesday, 30 October 2012. Founder and honorary President of Newropeans, founder of AEGEE and one of the initiators of ERASMUS, we have lost a militant democrat who devoted his life to realizing the...
Interview with Andreas Gross, mastermind of modern direct democracy
Andreas Gross turned 60 this year. Andreas Gross is the mastermind of modern movements of direct democracy. For decades he has been dealing with the question of how a federal European state with direct democracy should look like in practice. Andreas Gross turned 60 this year. He...
Lithuanians opt anti nuclear energy in non-binding referendum
On Sunday, 14 October Lithuanian voters rejected by referendum to build a new nuclear power plant, the Visaginas plant. With a (preliminary) voter turnout of 52 %, the referendum just reached the necessary threshold of 50% in order to be valid. The referendum was non-binding,...
New ECI demands Sunshine Rules on Mass Media
A European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) on media pluralism has been started this summer to address the increasing concentration of ownership and power in the media sector to the detriment of freedom of speech in many European countries. The idea was first launched by the...
Irish People to vote on children’s rights
On Saturday, 10 November 2012, Ireland’s three million registered voters are called to decide whether to amend the Irish constitution and to grant more rights to the child. Last week the Irish Government published the wording of Ireland’s 31st constitutional amendment, which...
"We must learn from each other" - Interview with Bruno Kaufmann
Bruno Kaufmann was one of the experts who participated at the hearing on citizen participation in Brussels on 18 September 2012. On this occasion Democracy International interviewed Bruno Kaufmann, who has been active for more than 20 years to implement direct democracy in...
Lessons from Switzerland for the EU
- Public Hearing on Direct Democracy and citizen participation -
On Tuesday, 18 September 2012 Members of European Parliament, academics, practitioners and citizens met in the European Parliament in Brussels on the occasion of a public hearing on „Citizen participation – How...