Definition of Popular Consultation

In the polis of Athens in the 5th century BC. C was established a new way of government, the democracy. Athenian citizens had mechanisms of participation in the life politics and the decisions they made in the assemblies determined the political direction of the community.

From the French Revolution Democracy took hold as a form of government and nations gradually developed a system of government of popular representation.

The popular consultations are proposed as a new advance within the representative democracy system

In the conventional democratic model, citizens are called to the polls periodically to elect their municipal, regional or state representatives. Some analysts and political scientists consider that this system can be improved, since the citizenship they do not always identify with their representatives. The mechanism that is proposed to promote the participation of the people in political activity is the popular consultation.

The fundamental idea of ​​any popular consultation is simple. Thus, a group of citizens raises a proposal from a certain number of signatures in support of the original idea and once obtained, a vote is organized on the matter raised. In this way, the people speak out on issues of all kinds: community budgets, issues of

safety, public works, industrial development of an area, etc.

Switzerland is the country with the longest tradition in popular consultations

In Switzerland there is a conventional parliamentary system and, in parallel, citizens vote in relation to all kinds of popular initiatives.

In recent years the Swiss have voted at the state level on the following issues: the extension of the holiday period, the maintenance of compulsory military service or the level of taxes related to some public services.

The popular consultation model has advantages and disadvantages

Its main advantage is evident: participation is encouraged and in this way the people intervene directly and without intermediaries in everything that is related to their interests.

A popular consultation can also be misrepresented by populist politicians who manipulate the people. In this sense, it is interesting to remember that the majority of Athenian philosophers did not approve of the democratic model tax by Pericles, as they considered that the new system was beneficial to the interests of the demagogues.

Photos: Fotolia - Handini_Atmodiwiryo / Ratoca

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