What Is Straight Democracy?
Straight Democracy is the umbrella term for processes in which individual citizens vote directly, at various points in time, on decisions concerning important issues, bottom-up and facilitated by trusted organizations that communicate the results directly to political decision-makers and public authorities.
It is a new, modern and relatively little-known system of citizen participation that is now gradually gaining ground in Europe, including the Netherlands.
In the longer term, it could replace the existing system, but for now its focus is on providing additional opportunities for voting and decision-making on specific issues.
And How Does It Work?
Naturally, this does not mean that citizens vote on all kinds of issues at all kinds of moments on their own initiative. It starts with a politically independent enabling organization that develops a working model and brings together a large community of participants.
From there, topics are selected periodically in consultation with participants, policy options are developed and put to a vote. The results are then presented to political decision-makers.
This process can be organized in various ways, either entirely or partially digitally.
Why Straight Democracy?
Quite simply, because representative democracy no longer provides the level of influence that people want to have over their own lives in today’s world. Politics is facing an existential crisis because the current system is no longer suited to modern society.
Symptoms include polarisation, declining trust, populism, democratic backsliding and opaque decision-making – such as the green transition – that takes place beyond democratic scrutiny. These are issues whose public debate originally began as a warning signal. Ultimately, however, those debates have been confined by the powers that be to downplaying, framing and politically managing these phenomena, within the very institutions that continue to cause the problems.
Straight Democracy is the counterpart of the current Representative Democracy (also known as ‘Parliamentary Democracy’), in which citizens vote once every four years for a political party or politician who is then supposed to represent them in all major decisions on all issues over the following four years.
An intermediate form is Direct Democracy, which is sometimes used in certain countries within the existing parliamentary democratic system to gauge public opinion.
Towards a New Political Era
Whether we are talking about national decision-making or supranational governance, the shortcomings of democracy have one common cause: every citizen is represented by a single, clearly defined group that always speaks on their behalf, on every conceivable issue.
This system of political representation worked reasonably well in the old industrial societies, with their clearly defined social, cultural and religious groups. However, it no longer corresponds at all to today’s increasingly individualized societies. This mismatch leads to polarisation, alienation and poor decision-making. Societies are complex and change rapidly. It has therefore become essential for citizens to be directly and closely involved in policy-making and decision-making.
This analysis is borne out by everyday experience. Recent opinion polls in the Netherlands show that 70% of the population no longer trust politicians. Crises and major societal challenges remain unresolved. Quality of life, affordability and safety are under pressure, and many citizens feel that their voices are not being heard. The situation is the same in many other EU countries. Growing discontent is simmering among Western European populations over living conditions and public governance.
Where Can We Find Straight Democracy?
Quite a number of organizations are already working on preparations. What stands out is that they all share the same general objective of Straight Democracy, but each one chooses its own specific approach to implementation.
At the European level, two initiatives stand out in particular: CitizenGO, a large international organization headquartered in Madrid, and Civil Democracy, a professional initiative that has been under development for several years at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. CitizenGO has a strong public presence, with forceful campaigns on the front lines. Civil Democracy is in the testing phase of a fully digital system for direct citizen decision-making.
In the Netherlands, Straight Democracy is being introduced by De BurgerUnie (www.burgerunie.nl).