Democracy
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Objectives
The purpose of this project is to provide the tools that lead to a more direct democracy for the next city and national elections:
- create documentation and support for Flatpack Democracy and citizen lists on the local level
- discuss on different other levels (national, European, ...) how democracy can be implemented
- discuss our 'internal' democracy
Meetings
Current Projects
Local level: Citizen lists documentation
List of crews involved in a "citizen list"
- Gent
- West Vlaanderen: burgerlijst in Veurne
- Brabant Wallon: Collectif pour une Démocratie Locale à Ottignies-Louvain-la-Neuve (site web en construction) and the "library" we have started setting up.
Sharing documentation
Work in progress :
- loomio topic on the Pirates BE - Permanent Assembly: Pirates building citizens lists
- a wiki page (coming soon) - some documents below in the meantime...
- Plaquette de la Région Wallonne sur la démocratie participative dans les communes. Ecrite plutôt du point de vue des autorités mais très intéressant car il montre qu'il y a déjà beaucoup d'outils de participation.
Big city/national/European
Internal Democracy
Reference materials
- direct democracy
- liquid democracy and some Belgian pirate comments
- deliberative democracy
- E-democracy
- General overview:
- Forms of Democracy
- Direct Democracy :
Definitions, literature and references - John G. Matsusaka, University of Southern California
facts, arguments and experiences on the introduction of initiative and referendum This book is a must for anyone who has an interest in the current changes in society. It is available for free in eight languages.
It is the goal of the Initiative and Referendum Institute, Europe's first think-tank on modern direct democracy founded in 2001, to make a significant contribution to improving the knowledge of the history and practice of direct democracy – in the world in general, and especially in Europe.
That is why the IRI "Guidebook to Direct Democracy" (published in English, French, Spanish, German, Korean, Italian, Finnish and Chinese) focuses on the place where the tools which allow citizens to take part in political decision-making are the most extensive and have been used for the longest period of time – Switzerland. Over the past 150 years, citizens' rights have been continually extended and now cover all the levels of political life (national, cantonal and local) and all areas of politics (including foreign policy). IRI also developed, in collaboration with Democracy International, the direct-democracy-navigator – a unique global information and collaboration platform on modern participative democracy.
The idea of “Liquid Democracy” has already been circulating on the web for a couple of years, however without any suggestions for a specific execution. The core of the idea is delegated voting, which removes the previous separation between representative democratic and direct democratic decisions. The principle of delegated voting is the base for all Liquid Democracy concepts, however the idea itself is not sufficient when it comes to the description of complex political processes. Since the end of 2008 people associated with the current Liquid Democracy e.V. deal with the theme of liquid democracy and try to advance it ever since. Some more comments here on our wiki.
The term “Liquid Democracy”, LD stands for a new form of democracy in which various “rigid“ barriers are being “fluidised“.
- Athenian Democracy in the Age of Demosthenes: Structure, Principles & Ideology by Mogens Herman Hansen (ISBN-10: 0806131438 | ISBN-13: 978-0806131436)
This book summarize 30 years of research on Athenian society and focus on the second era of Athenian democracy (403-322 BC). As the Athenian democracy is probably the most nearly perfect example of (direct) democracy, it is a very important inspiration for any person who want to understand how a democracy can work. This book is also translated in French.
- Participedia is an open global knowledge community for researchers and practitioners in the field of democratic innovation and public engagement.
- Les outils numériques au service d’une participation citoyenne et démocratique augmentée : Initiatives in francophone Belgium and good foreign practices to enhance the expression citizenship and participatory democracy.