Submitted by Evan Ravitz on October 12, 2008 - 3:33pm.
The facts that initiative sponsors usually agree to drafting changes, and that Parliament doesn't regard citizen initiatives as the enemy (as legislatures often do in the U.S.) is a testament to how giving citizens real responsibility (since 1891 for federal initiatives) eventually irons out many government problems.
It's because U.S. citizens can only watch as Congress commits act after act of "government AGAINST the people" -from NAFTA to the bailout -that Congress is the most unpopular institution in U.S. history. A commenter in the Boulder Daily Camera here suggested executing 1/10 of Congress to get the rest to heel. How much better are national initiatives than that! Boulder is the most educated city in the U.S.
Time is partly what makes direct democracy work
The facts that initiative sponsors usually agree to drafting changes, and that Parliament doesn't regard citizen initiatives as the enemy (as legislatures often do in the U.S.) is a testament to how giving citizens real responsibility (since 1891 for federal initiatives) eventually irons out many government problems.
It's because U.S. citizens can only watch as Congress commits act after act of "government AGAINST the people" -from NAFTA to the bailout -that Congress is the most unpopular institution in U.S. history. A commenter in the Boulder Daily Camera here suggested executing 1/10 of Congress to get the rest to heel. How much better are national initiatives than that! Boulder is the most educated city in the U.S.