29 Juni 2016
Sovereign and misinformed: Brexit as an exercise in democracy?
Rather than criticising the Brexit referendum as a decision-making tool because ‘the people’ don’t have the necessary expertise to take decisions of this magnitude, we should question the conditions in which many UK voters were called to express their opinion. They, like many all over the world, have seen the progressive hollowing-out of those basic rights that make voting the expression of the right to individual and collective self-rule in the first place. Continue reading >>
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26 Juni 2016
Five Questions on Brexit to LAURENT PECH
Middlesex Law Professor Laurent Pech on the limits if not perils of direct democracy when citizens to are asked to decide complex policy choices in the absence of a clear understanding of the available options and potential consequences of their vote. Continue reading >>24 Februar 2016
Schweiz: Diktatur der Mehrheit reloaded
Am Sonntag stimmen die Schweizer_innen über die so genannte "Durchsetzungsinitiative" ab. Aus diesem Anlass und vielen weiteren, die alle einzeln aufzuzählen mich in die Depression stürzen lassen würde, stelle ich erneut auf den Blog, was ich vor mehr als sechs Jahren zum Thema "Wir sind das Volk" geschrieben habe. Continue reading >>10 Februar 2016