PARLIAMENT AND DEMOCRACY - Inter-Parliamentary Union

92 I PARLIAMENT AND DEMOCRACY IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
Popular Initiatives where citizens can present suggestions, initiatives and
proposals for laws. Ecuador gives citizens and social movements the power to
propose legislation, and to take part in discussion of those bills which the
National Congress has agreed to consider. Portugal has since 2003 a right of
Citizens’ Legislative Initiative in force, whereby initiatives subscribed to by
over 35,000 electors are mandatory for discussion and vote in the Assembly
of the Republic. These are also opened to wider public interactive discussion
through the Assembly’s Internet ‘webpage’. The House of Representatives of
the Dutch Parliament has been investigating the possibility of introducing
a citizens’ initiative at the national level, again with any decision to rest with
the House as to whether and how to take such an initiative forward. ‘The
introduction of the citizens’ initiative could prove beneficial in several ways,’
it observes, ‘most importantly by reducing the distance between citizens
and politics.’
Direct and representative democracy
This concern to bridge the gap between citizens and politics, in conclusion,
can be seen as the driving impetus behind many of the measures reviewed in
this section. We have seen a number of different ways in which parliaments
are working to involve citizens in the legislative process, both through
contributions to work on bills in progress and through suggestions for new or
amended legislation. These may involve: open invitations to citizens to make
submissions on bills; invitations to specified NGOs and social movements;
ongoing arrangements for collaboration between parliamentary committees
and citizen groups and experts; special forums or chambers for civil society,
whether meeting independently or jointly with parliamentarians; procedures
for citizens’ initiatives and referendums; or some combination of a number of
these modes. Which of these modes, and in which combination, is most effective
will naturally depend on local circumstances. For example, resource and
other constraints may make the use of the referendum impractical, whereas a
right of citizen initiative which leaves the final decision to parliament may be
eminently feasible. Whatever the modes selected, all the evidence indicates
that parliaments are taking the responsibility to engage citizens in the legislative
process very seriously.
Do these developments call into question the integrity of representative
democracy, or the claim of elected representatives to speak on behalf of their
whole electorate, in contrast to a direct democracy which favours the organised,
the vocal and those with the most intense views? The sharp antithesis
often drawn between direct and representative democracy is a misleading one,