Direct democracy in France
In: American political science review, Band 57, S. 883-901
ISSN: 0003-0554
In: American political science review, Band 57, S. 883-901
ISSN: 0003-0554
In: National civic review: promoting civic engagement and effective local governance for more than 100 years, Band 66, Heft 1, S. 19-35
ISSN: 1542-7811
In: American political science review, Band 57, Heft 4, S. 883-901
ISSN: 1537-5943
When during the debate on a motion of censure in October 1962 Paul Reynaud challenged the government from the rostrum of the National Assembly with a scornful: "Here and nowhere else is France!", the issue was well joined. To Reynaud, perennial deputy during three republican regimes, General de Gaulle's projected referendum appeared as a two-fold attack upon French republican traditions. If adopted, the proposal to elect the President of the Republic by popular suffrage would divest the Assembly of its role as the sole bearer of national sovereignty. Moreover, to seek approval for such a change of the constitution of 1958 without a prior vote of parliament deprived both houses of any participation in the amending process.In 1958, as President of the Consultative Constitutional Committee, Reynaud had insisted that the possibilities of any direct appeal to the electorate be carefully circumscribed and hedged by parliamentary controls. He had obtained official assurances that the referendum would never be used by the executive as a means of arousing popular opinion against the elected assemblies. The final text of the constitution had incorporated proposals by the Consultative Committee which strengthened the position of parliament whenever either a referendum or presidential emergency powers might create a plebiscitarian situation.
In: National civic review: publ. by the National Municipal League, Band 66, Heft 1, S. 19-23
ISSN: 0027-9013
In: Journal of political economy, Band 88, Heft 4, S. 803-810
ISSN: 1537-534X
In: American political science review, Band 57, Heft 4, S. 883-901
ISSN: 0003-0554
World Affairs Online
In: The round table: the Commonwealth journal of international affairs, Heft 296, S. 319-327
ISSN: 0035-8533
Kurze Darstellung der politischen Ideen Qaddafis in bezug auf die direkte Demokratie und Versuch, Parallelen zu anderen Staatsphilosophien (Plato, Montesquieu, Rousseau) zu ziehen; Problem der Übertragung der qaddafischen Demokratievorstellung auf andere Länder. (DÜI-Sdt)
World Affairs Online
In: Studia diplomatica: Brussels journal of international relations, Band 29, Heft 5, S. 585-505
ISSN: 0770-2965
World Affairs Online
In: Parliamentary affairs: a journal of comparative politics
ISSN: 1460-2482
In: State Government: journal of state affairs, Band 59, S. 31-39
ISSN: 0039-0097
In: Parliamentary affairs: a journal of representative politics, Band 24, S. 123-139
ISSN: 0031-2290
In: European history quarterly, Band 16, Heft 1, S. 77-96
ISSN: 1461-7110
In: Journal of policy modeling: JPMOD ; a social science forum of world issues, Band 8, Heft 2, S. 255-271
ISSN: 0161-8938
Mulford Sibley is not the sort of scholar who makes a career of elaborating variations on a theme. There are recurring themes in his work, however, and I want to sound two of them, participatory democracy and technology, in this essay. These themes may be joined in a number of ways, but here I shall take up only one - the possibility that advances in communications technology may actually promote democracy by extending and enhancing opportunities for political participation.
BASE
In: Comparative political studies: CPS, Band 15, Heft 1, S. 3-28
ISSN: 1552-3829
Dutch action groups are related to the single-issue groups and citizens' movements of other advanced industrial societies. They are characterized by concentration on a single issue, the use of direct action to mobilize public opinion, and relatively intense but brief lives as organized political forces. Action groups are among the few channels of direct political participation available in a highly institutionalized representative democracy. This article uses survey evidence from the mass public and from local and national elites to see if Dutch action groups are an effective channel of direct participation. For several reasons, it turns out that they are not: (1) Although action group participation is one of the more common forms of Dutch political activity, it is a channel used mainly by young middle-class leftists. (2) There is considerable mistrust of action groups by both mass and elite. This is due primarily to disapproval of demonstrations and direct action tactics. (3) As a result, political elites are unresponsive to action group demands. This is particularly true at the national level; the evidence suggests that action groups are somewhat more influential at the municipal level. Action groups must win the confidence of the conservative portion of the population if they are to become the effective channels of direct political participation that they have the potential to be. This would be a desirable development from the viewpoint of decreasing the distance between citizen and government.