Next week, I'll be representing North America at the 2009 Global Forum on Modern Direct Democracy in Seoul, South Korea. This is the second global forum -- the first took place last year in Switzerland. For purposes of translation, speeches had to be submitted several weeks early, and they are now available here on the web (including my own). For those interested in the global dimensions of direct democracy, the speeches offer a sort of world survey of the progress of initiative and referendum, from Europe to Asia to Latin America (and with country-specific reports from Austria to Japan).

Look for plenty of reports on this blog next week and via twitter at joemmathews (yep, there's an extra "m").