Direct Democracy in Iceland

You may recall the referendum pushed through by the people of Iceland about one year ago They voted against permitting their governors to subsidize the pay-out of their defaulting banks. At the time this was thought by most of their leaders to be jeopardizing the continuation of Icelandic economic stability. Now just one year later Iceland is experiencing a real boom. It has shaken off that mess somehow. According to a speech by the president of Iceland recorded on CBC Radio on Dec. 11, Iceland is expected to experience 3% growth in the coming year. This is just another example of the common-sense of the public overriding the opinions of the elite. It emphasizes the effectiveness of Direct Democracy. It should not be a mark against democracy to say that one cannot trust the masses to think straight. Democracy with all its possible warts and bruises is still the best manner of governing - and we should not forget that, when permitting votes, not just for representatives, but upon difficult issues.

No true Referendums in Britain - yet.

The Economist Magazine of Oct. 29 had a lengthy discussion about the British people wanting to vote in a referendum about joining the European Union. Speaker after speaker in the House asked the government to put the issue to a vote of the people - but the leaders have demurred. They were presumably afraid of what the answer might be. This obviously is hardly democratic, especially since the speakers were all elected representatives of their communities. But, in Britain they do not have real Direct Democracy. If it did, the public could have required that the issue be put to a vote, if enough of them signed a petition requesting such. The new, Conservative, Lib-Dem coalition actually had instituted a method of requiring a parliamentary debate - if 100,000 voters signed up requesting that that occur; and though it had also just instituted laws permitting local councils to hold referendums about taxes and planning, and had even requested the Scottish parliament to hold a referendum about its alleged desire of independent autonomy (believing that it would not yet win such a vote) holding nation-wide votes on ideas that the leaders feared answer to is not law there, yet.

Swedes prove Direct Democracy words there!

Just came across a very interesting use of a citizen-initiated referendum in Sweden. Back in 2003, according to the Economist magazine of Dec. 3, 56% of the Swedish people voted against the proposed conversion of their money (the Krona) over to the Euro. This was contra the wishes of most of their business and political leaders.

The yields on the current Swedish ten-year bonds have fallen below even that of the Germans. Who is smiling now? Once again it might be said that the common sense of the people has superceded that of the elites. An alleged flaw of using citizens to vote upon issues is that they do not know enough to be trusted that way. Well, how often has it been discovered that leaders are too easily misled, or are too enmeshed within their own powerful egos to be second-guessed?

In a democracy it is supposed to be the opinions of the majority of the voters who are to be listened to, when enough of them want such a vote. Sweden has proven once again that that is a good route to follow.

Democracy in British Columbia!

Just in case you did not notice it - the strenuous efforts in British Columbia to require that provinces' authorities to follow their citizens' wishes in their Direct Democracy campaign have succeeded. Despite expensive court interventions by some commercial interests to extinguish the whole idea, and delays by the province, the actual vote went on as proposed - and the result was that the very undemocratically implemented and objectionable HST charges imposed by the province were knocked out. About 55% of the vote was in opposition.

This is one of the very few such referendums that have occurred in a province in Canada in many years. The sanctions put in place to inhibit such a referendum are extremely onerous in BC, but the people prevailed and the principle of democracy has manifested itself amazingly well, there. Better rules should become emplaced and of course more provinces should get on board.

But, congratulations to British Columbians for showing their democratic credentials!