Video: The Big World of Direct Democracy

At the founding meeting of Democracy International, Bruno Kaufmann (IRI Europe) talked about the 'global war' for direct democracy, using examples from Belarus, Greenland and Iceland.

Bruno Kaufmann experienced in person that reality is often different to theory. In Belarus, the constitution provides direct democracy, yet these paragraphs do not translate into practice: in contrast, people have to fight for basic rights.

Every vote counts! Bruno Kaufmann observed Greenland's referendum concerning its self-autonomy. Due to the geographic location, Greenland has to undergo much effort to collect all votes, yet citizens can fulfill their democratic rights. Every vote counts!

Iceland has been the image of the global crisis. After the banks and the government collapsed, people demand to reset the democratic system. Subsequently, independent citizens have been elected to draft a new constitution; direct democracy serving as its foundation. Bruno Kaufmann concludes, that it sometimes need a complete break to improve society's set-up.

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