democracy

[IOANNIS PSOMIADIS]

when was direct democracy first used?

[eggy1943]

I suspect that when first humans grouped, and wanted to go in different directions, they had a "vote". Thus DD is really part of people's social, tribal, community. The "history" says this.

The first recorded democracy, which was also direct, was the Athenian democracy in the 5th century BC. The main bodies in the Athenian democracy were the assembly, composed by male citizens, the boule which was composed by 500 citizens chosen annually by lot), and the law courts composed by a massive number of juries chosen by lot, with no judges. Out of the male population of 30,000, several thousand citizens were politically active every year and many of them quite regularly for years on end. The Athenian democracy was not only direct in the sense that decisions were made by the assembled people, but also directest in the sense that the people through the assembly, boule and law courts controlled the entire political process and a large proportion of citizens were involved constantly in the public business.[3] Modern democracies do not use institutions that resemble the Athenian system of rule, due to the problems arising when implementing such on the scale of modern societies.

Also relevant is the history of Roman republic beginning circa 449 BC (Cary, 1967). The ancient Roman Republic's "citizen lawmaking"—citizen formulation and passage of law, as well as citizen veto of legislature-made law—began about 449 BC and lasted the approximately four hundred years to the death of Julius Caesar in 44 BC. Many historians mark the end of the Republic on the passage of a law named the Lex Titia, 27 November 43 BC (Cary, 1967).

Modern-era citizen lawmaking began in the towns of Switzerland in the 13th century. In 1847, the Swiss added the "statute referendum" to their national constitution. They soon discovered that merely having the power to veto Parliament's laws was not enough. In 1891, they added the "constitutional amendment initiative". The Swiss political battles since 1891 have given the world a valuable experience base with the national-level constitutional amendment initiative (Kobach, 1993). Today, Switzerland is still an example of modern direct democracy, as it exhibits the first two pillars at both the local and federal levels. In the past 120 years more than 240 initiatives have been put to referendum. The populace has been conservative, approving only about 10% of the initiatives put before them; in addition, they have often opted for a version of the initiative rewritten by government. (See Direct democracy in Switzerland below.) Another example is the United States, where, despite being a federal republic where no direct democracy exists at the federal level, over half the states (and many localities) provide for citizen-sponsored ballot initiatives (also called "ballot measures" or "ballot questions") and the vast majority of the states have either initiatives and/or referendums. (See Direct democracy in the United States below.)

Some of the issues surrounding the related notion of a direct democracy using the Internet and other communications technologies are dealt with in e-democracy. More concisely, the concept of open source governance applies principles of the free software movement to the governance of people, allowing the entire populace to participate in government directly, as much or as little as they please. This development strains the traditional concept of democracy, because it does not give equal representation to each person. Some implementations may even be considered democratically-inspired meritocracies, where contributers to the code of laws are given preference based on their ranking by other contributers.

So together we can decide how our present "direct democracy" is configured and used.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_democracy

[IOANNIS PSOMIADIS]

Amazingly,archiologists have found evidence that Hellenes used Democracy centuries earlier on the coast of asia minor and the north aegean!Some say even thousands of years earlier,prior to the Athenians.....The Swiss are a good example of how we ,today ,can make better political structures.I am sure Kapodistrias,who wrote thier constitution,would have been very proud of them today,had he been alive.

[eggy1943]

Thanks for this topic. It is amazing to me, how far we have regressed, and continue regressing. It is time for a new awareness followed by action.

[IOANNIS PSOMIADIS]

Thank you!I'm very happy that there are people out there who care.Instead of analyzing my thoughts to you,why don't you look up ZEITGEIST on U-TUBE...That represents me more or less. Could it be possible that a conspiracy did this?A 2000 year old one???Maybe older?[Plutarch says that in Egypt,the god OSIRIS [a good god],wanted peace in the world and went out in the world to tell everyone,and to peacefully enforce it.When he came back,72 men "from the east",threw a party for him,then nailed him into a box and threw him in the RED sea!].What do you think of that my friend? By the way,72 was also the # of men who translated the "old testament"in to Greek during Ptolemy B' reign,about 250 b.c.

[eggy1943]

I looked at couple ZEITGEIST episodes. Yes it describes our plight
I believe we have long made decisions based on FEAR and Superstition. The early "reporters" used drama to explain their fantasy's of what life is and it is now considered fact. It is apparently to simple to look at the weather and act accordingly. Look at the Earth and respect it, sustain it. Live within our means in terms of money as well as what we use of the resources. Reality, is it really that hard to understand?

[IOANNIS PSOMIADIS]

I ABSOLUTELY AGREE WITH YOU!.SO WHAT IS HAPPENING THEN?WHAT NEXT?WERE ARE ALL THE PEOPLE OF REASON,AND INTELECT?THEY KNOW ALL THIS,DONT THEY?IF YES,THEN WHAT?ARE THEY COWARDS?

[eggy1943]

The first "reality" is that we have this great forum to discuss, plan and develop Initiatives which could solve a few problems.

The second reality is nobody participates.

Glad you are here.

Others can join us here: http://tinyurl.com/92do5b

Bruce

[IOANNIS PSOMIADIS]

What does EGGY mean?Do you live in N.H.?.......HAVE A GREAT DEMOCRATIC NEW YEAR!

[Jm Powell]

The politicians are the employees of the voters.
All our decisions should be motivated by this simple fact. We all realise that this is not the normal situation but voters decide who gets employed and voter pay the salaries

The voters are comfortable with the status quo of a "5 year dictatorship" which passes of as democracy because this is percieved as normal.

The method I am using is to have the constitution of our local community organisation changed so that the members are in charge of the committee.

Also I have become a member of the opposition party, the "Democratic Alliance", in South Africa and having the principles of Direct Democracy included in the Manifesto.

[IOANNIS PSOMIADIS]

Good for you Jim,get more of your people to participate.Have a great year!

[eggy1943]

Thanks Jim,
Your example helps much. Any suggestions in networking community would be appreciated.
Bruce

[IOANNIS PSOMIADIS]

WHERE IS EVERYBODY?