Better Democracy NZ is a non-partisan, non-profit organisation.

Our mission is to foster the improvement of New Zealand's democratic system and encourage the use of direct democracy through the

Veto, Citizens' Initiated and Recall referendum.

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Tuesday 28 June 2011

New Zealand: An Introduction to Direct Democracy

“What does democracy mean to you?”


For many people, democracy only means voting once every three years at a general election. While New Zealand is indeed a wonderful place to live and certainly far more democratic than most countries, it can always become better. Direct democracy can make it possible for New Zealanders to make political decisions that directly affect their lives inbetween elections. This is a political tools that many New Zealanders have probably never considered, yet for over one hundred and forty years this is exactly what the Swiss people have been doing through the use of citizens initiated referendums, constitutional referendums, veto referendums and the recall referendum, all of which are binding on the government.
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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Binding referendums mean government by hysteria.

Steve Baron said...

Interesting comment. How does this apply to Switzerland? Would you class them as a hysterical society?

dudivie said...

one of the best books i ever eread

Anonymous said...

Swiss has history of 7000 years in direct democracy while other countries have no experience for balanced laws for it

Steve Baron said...

It would be interesting to hear a few comments from some Swiss people on referendums.