Every adult has the constitutional right to submit a petition, also to the Sejm and the Senate. This form is much more accessible than the citizens’ legislative initiative. It is a so-called soft instrument, because it does not lead directly to decisions with legal effect.
Category: Democracy
Ethical citizen
The Scottish Enlightenment was a watershed period because it was then that civil society was framed in a more modern form. Moral values in democracy and politics are crucial, and parliamentary democracy leads to many distortions. The alternative is to use direct democracy.
Freedom
Freedom has both a negative element, which is the absence of various forms of oppression, and a positive aspect, which is the freedom to make various choices. Unreflective service to the idea set by the authorities leads to distortion of the system.
Democracy in Switzerland
Swiss direct democracy arose because of the special historical circumstances of this federal state. The main forms of democracy include the people’s assembly, the people’s initiative, and the referendum, and the principle of subsidiarity gives considerable power to the individual cantons.
Inspiring democracies around the world
Contemporary forms of government are an important source of inspiration for us, especially Swiss (direct democracy), Estonian (e-democracy) and Singaporean (technocracy). Parag Khanna points to direct technocracy as the ideal form of government in the 21st century.