Now, in representative democracies, we do not have control over our politicians; in-between elections, the people in power can do anything they want.
In a representative democracy, you do not really have control over the elected representatives; we give them absolutely all the executive and legislative power. Do you think that is right, fair or just?; it is absurd.
This also means representative democracy is not really democracy. It can not be; it is not “government by the people” if the people do not have control.
Direct democracy offers the mechanisms, and the proven track record to make sure elected politicians can not act without the support or consent of voters.
Direct democracy gives elected politicians the authority to propose policies, laws, and changes to the Constitution, but what they propose is subject to what voters decide about that specific issue.
The current situation is wrong; we elect people and then give them control over our working and personal lives. The people we elect become our masters, not our servants, never mind all the devalued, and often false, words many politicians spew out about being “the servants of the people”.
How can be the “servants of the people” tgose who pass all the laws and make all the executive decisions the people have to comply with? The current situation in representative democracies is a lie and is unjust.
Direct democracy is about many things, but it is also a formalized, systematic, deliberate, peaceful, orderly system for people to control the politicians.
We, the voters, pay. With our taxes we sustain the executive and the legislative; we pay their salaries, their pensions, their expenses, we sustain our towns, regions and countries, we should be the masters. We should not accept a system, where the people we elect become our masters.
If the people can not control what the politicians, do it is not democracy. It is not democracy just because the party in power changes. It is not democracy because those now in power continue to have authority over us. It is not a substantial difference just because “the Right”, “the Left”, “the Center”, or a coalition of parties, now governs, as long as they have power over us.
Don’t you think it is time that we turned “we pay, they decide” into “we pay, we decide”? If you believe it is, you will have to mobilize, peacefully, but insistently, forcefully, until the politicians agree to transfer their authority to us, the voters.
Formal, systematic, deliberate, orderly control of politicians by the voters is urgently necessary.
Direct democracy delivers the best government we know. How do we know? Because Switzerland has it and it is the best governed country in the World; it combines real democracy (government by the people), freedom and prosperity, and does so at the highest levels humans have reached.
For centuries, direct democracy has given unique power to the Swiss voters to, sometimes push the politicians if they do not do what the people want them to, other times the voters pull them back to stop them from doing things the people do not want.
Us, voters of current representative democracies should push to have at least such powers.
Collectively, we pay for everything, we should have authority over the politicians; turn them around into our servants.
