Direct democracy

“We no longer use the word "democracy" as the founders of our government used it, as meaning a government in which the people not only elect officers but make laws by voting. When we speak of democracy in this sense now, we add the adjective "direct"—meaning government by the voters directly rather than by agents chosen for the purpose of discovering and enforcing the voters' will.”

“There is... a peculiar interest... in surveying the institutions of those countries which in our own time have carried farthest the application of the democratic idea. In this, without doubt, Switzerland leads the way. The practice of direct democracy has been extended there to an extraordinary degree, and the end is not yet.”

“Athenian democracy was different from the much later American form, not only because it was the expression of a single city-state but because it was a direct, rather than a representative democracy. To us, looking backwards, it may seem imprudent to invite all citizens to vote on all major initiatives, but Solon was right to appreciate that no Athenian freeman could allow himself to be left out of anything.”

“The characteristic of direct democracy is its deep-seated distrust of representative leadership, and its superior confidence in the instinct, the common sense, and the conscience of the mass of the people. There is no State which I visited in which this modern political tendency can be traced to its conclusion and partial confusion better than in the State of Oregon. Oregon is the native haunt of direct democracy.”

“The number of which the House or Representatives is to consist, forms another and a very interesting point of view... In all very numerous assemblies, of whatever characters composed, passion never fails to wrest the sceptre from reason. Had every American citizen been a Socrates, every Athenian assembly would still have been a mob.”

“Everywhere, in the commune, the canton, the Confederation, the persistent dominant desire of the people to retain direct control over specific acts of government, and to refuse plenary powers to elected representatives, gives special character to Swiss democracy.”

“In a free-market economy, the consumer is king: labor unions don't run things, business people don't run things, bankers don't run things, politicians don't run things, but the success of a business depends on how people spend their money.”

“The original American democracy in the New England towns was "direct" democracy. In its first form this cannot be restored. But to keep our political life sound, we must find substitutes for it. So far the only effective one suggested lies in a further development of the initiative, referendum, and recall,—devices of direct democracy which also were originated in early New England.”