Direct democracy is the solution not the problem

Meeting in San Sebastián last week, experts from more than 30 countries discussed ways to fend off attacks against participatory democracy. An international conference in Spain’s Basque Country provided some answers both in a local and global context. Set against a series of ballot box upsets – notably in the United States, Britain and Colombia – activists, state representatives and academics exchanged ideas about granting citizens a direct say in political decisions. “2016 has been a very intense year for direct democracy. But has it also been a good year?” asked David Altman, professor of political science in Chile. Andreas Gross, a leading Swiss expert on direct democracy, said it was crucial to make a clear distinction between elections, votes on people’s initiatives and ballots on government-sponsored decisions, such as in Britain, Colombia or Hungary. Salvör Nordal, director of the Ethics Institute at the University of Iceland and former ...