Direct Democracy.
You may note from my by-line that I favour Direct Democracy.
Australia has referendum imbedded in our constitution. The other 2 components of Direct Democracy are are Initiative and Recall.
Initiative being a law proposed by the populace (via a petition process), or the striking down of a law by the populace - a veto.
Recall being the sacking of a public official by the people. An example being the sacking of Governor Davis in California and his being replaced by Arnold Swarzenegger.
Government too often tends towards being a kleptocracy, and I'd argue ours is tending towards an oligarchy, rather than a democracy.
Direct Democracy is the way to put our politicians in their place, and on a short leash at that.
Australia has referendum imbedded in our constitution. The other 2 components of Direct Democracy are are Initiative and Recall.
Initiative being a law proposed by the populace (via a petition process), or the striking down of a law by the populace - a veto.
Recall being the sacking of a public official by the people. An example being the sacking of Governor Davis in California and his being replaced by Arnold Swarzenegger.
Government too often tends towards being a kleptocracy, and I'd argue ours is tending towards an oligarchy, rather than a democracy.
Direct Democracy is the way to put our politicians in their place, and on a short leash at that.
posted by Phil at 8:21 pm
1 Comments:
Phil -- You've great altitude. Oz needs your kind of constitution. Australia's current "referendum" is a nifty choke-hold and bad joke on the people. You can't have one unless your politicians say you can. You want one on an issue that's offensive to money-power? Go fish.
Good start on the blog. Been a while since you've posted, though. Plenty of material "in the literature", off which you can springboard. Have you read Kris Kobach's 1993 book, "The Referendum: Direct Democracy In Switzerland"? Title is a misnomer. It's about the whole realm of direct democracy, in Switzerland and in any nation whose citizens have practiced direct democracy. His treatment of Australia is particularly good, I think.
Hopefully, you'd appreciate my own work. Been at it a dozen years. Keep it close to the bone. See everything from the people's POV first. Take the part of those ordinary Americans who've fought best and hardest to wreck corruption with direct democracy -- our fighting patriots in the War of Independence, 1775-1783. And, of course, there are our citizen action groups who led many tens of millions through our "Reform Era", 1877-1918. It was the greatest democracy movement in recorded history. Resulted in direct democracy governance components being forced into 26 state constitutions.
Unfortunately, Reform Era citizens thought they'd won the war and went back to their own lives -- while the predators immediately mounted their revenge. In all the I&R states, they passed unconstitutional statutes to arbitrarily delay, alter, and/or reject any citizen-proposed law that might be offensive to money-power.
Their unconstitutionalities are not subtle, but our citizens still have not tumbled to how it is that what we need most to fight corruption, stop the predators from butchering us, get fair taxation, get universal medical care, get a sustainable future, and get a decent education for everyone who can absorb it gets turned away. At the same time, the initiatives coming from money-power -- which are routinely stopped at the ballot box -- and fluffy little no-consequence proposals just sail right through to the next general election.
I've several pieces online that discuss the dirty tricks. They're violations of our constitutional "separation of powers" provisions and the over-the-top "binding judicial review of proposed law". No US constitution defines the judicial power to include binding judicial review of proposed law. In this country binding judicial review comes only AFTER the proposal has become finished law.
A judge here would be impeached and removed before dinner if he/she were to rule that a legislature is barred from ever voting on a bill that is "in committee" because, say, it does not conform to standing state law. But judges here get away with doing that to citizen-proposed law in nearly every rampup to a general election.
Both sorts of unconstitutionalities violate both state and federal laws. We're gonna nail the rat-bastards one of these days -- just as soon as enough people stop their servility long enough to say, "Huh? How did they do that?" 'Course, it's been a hundred years now, and very few have stopped any tiny little bit of their amazing-to-me servility.
Very little action here in favor of direct democracy's citizen lawmaking. But the good ol' boys of the Bush-Cheney fascism just don't know when to quit. They're racking up more corruption per global month than has ever been done. People here are starting to notice. And when Americans run into a wall of corruption that has no way around and no way over, they bring the ten-thousand pound shit hammer called direct democracy.
Things look pretty buttoned up here. I'll expect you when you make contact.
Good luck to us all.
Stephen Neitzke
Direct Democracy League
http://ddleague-usa.net
DD Revival -- The Blog
http://ddrevival.blogspot.com
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