Editing Direct democracy (section)

==History==
{{See also|History of democracy}}

=== Antiquity ===
One strand of thought sees direct democracy as common and widespread in pre-state societies.<ref>
{{cite book
 | last1 = Cherkaoui
 | first1 = Mohamed
 | chapter = Islam and Democracy: Comparative Analysis of Individual and Collective Preferences
 | title = Essay on Islamization: Changes in Religious Practice in Muslim Societies
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=38y8DwAAQBAJ
 | series = Youth in a Globalizing World - Volume 10
 | date = 29 October 2019
 | location = Leiden
 | publisher = Brill
 | publication-date = 2019
 | page = 201
 | isbn = 9789004415034
 | access-date = 27 June 2021
 | quote = [...] individuals, Muslims and non-Muslims, Greeks, Arabs, Berbers, Africans and Amerindians, have lived according to the principles of a type of direct democracy in their societies. [...] In the West, since the great revolutions, from the English in the 17th century, the American and French of the end of the 18th century, elites and then all the people have gradually experimented with a liberal democracy whose principles are indisputably different from those of tribal democracy.
}}
</ref><ref>
Compare:
{{cite book
 | last1 = Glassman
 | first1 = Ronald M.
 | chapter = The Emergence of Democracy in Bands and Tribes
 | title = The Origins of Democracy in Tribes, City-States and Nation-States
 | date = 19 June 2017
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=GNgoDwAAQBAJ
 | volume = 1
 | location = Cham, Switzerland
 | publisher = Springer
 | publication-date = 2017
 | page = 4
 | isbn = 9783319516950
 | access-date = 27 June 2021
}}
</ref>

The earliest well-documented direct democracy is said to be the [[Athenian democracy]] of the 5th century BC. The main bodies in the Athenian democracy were the [[Athenian Assembly|assembly]], composed of male citizens; the [[boule (ancient Greece)|boulê]], composed of 500 citizens; and the law courts, composed of a massive number of jurors chosen by lot, with no judges. Ancient [[Attica]] had only about 30,000 male citizens, but several thousand of them were politically active in each year and many of them quite regularly for years on end. The Athenian democracy was ''direct'' not only in the sense that the assembled people made decisions, but also in the sense that the people – through the assembly, boulê, and law courts – controlled the entire political process, and a large proportion of citizens were involved constantly in public affairs.<ref name="Raaflaub5">{{Harvnb|Raaflaub|Ober|Wallace|2007|p= 5}}</ref> Most modern democracies, being representative, not direct, do not resemble the Athenian system.  Moreover, the Athenian democracy was exclusive.  For example, in Athens in the middle of the 4th century there were about 100,000 citizens (Athenian citizenship was limited to men and women whose parents had also been Athenian citizens), about 10,000 metoikoi, or “resident foreigners,” and 150,000 slaves. Out of all those people, only male citizens who were older than 18 were a part of the demos, meaning only about 40,000 people could participate in the democratic process.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-greece/ancient-greece-democracy#section_1 | title=Ancient Greek Democracy ‑ Athenian, Definition, Modern | date=5 June 2023 }}</ref>

Also relevant to the history of direct democracy is the history of [[Ancient Rome]], specifically during the [[Roman Republic]], traditionally founded around 509&nbsp;BC.<ref name=cary67>{{Harvnb|Cary|Scullard|1967}}</ref> Rome displayed many aspects of democracy, both direct and indirect, from the era of [[Roman Kingdom|Roman monarchy]] all the way to the collapse of the [[Roman Empire]]. While the Roman senate was the main body with historical longevity, lasting from the Roman kingdom until after the collapse of the [[Western Roman Empire]] in 476 AD, it did not embody a purely democratic approach, being made up – during the late republic – of former elected officials,<ref>{{cite book|last1= Abbott|first1= Frank Frost|title= A History and Descriptions of Roman Political Institutions|date=1963|publisher=Noble Offset Printers Inc|location=New York|pages=157–165|edition=3|orig-year=1901}}</ref> providing advice rather than creating law.<ref name="lintott">{{cite book|last1=Lintott|first1=Andrew|title=The Constitution of the Roman Republic|date= 2003|publisher= Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|isbn=0-19-926108-3|page=3}}</ref> The democratic aspect of the constitution resided in the Roman [[Legislative assemblies of the Roman Republic|popular assemblies]], where the people organized into ''[[centuria]]e'' or into [[Roman tribe|tribe]]s – depending on the assembly – and cast votes on various matters, including elections and laws, proposed before them by their elected magistrates.{{sfn|Lintott|2003|p= 43}} Some classicists have argued that the Roman republic deserves the label of "democracy", with universal suffrage for adult male citizens, popular sovereignty, and transparent deliberation of public affairs.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Gruen |first1=Erich S. |title=Review of The Crowd in Rome in the Late Republic |journal=Classical Philology |date=2000 |volume=95 |issue=2 |pages=236–240 |doi=10.1086/449494 |jstor=270466 }}</ref>
Many historians mark the end of the Republic with the ''[[lex Titia]]'', passed on 27 November 43 BC, which eliminated many oversight provisions.<ref name=cary67/>

=== Modern era ===

Modern-era citizen-lawmaking occurs in the cantons of [[Switzerland]] from the 13th century. In 1848 the Swiss added the "statute referendum" to their national constitution, requiring the public to vote on if a constitutional change should occur.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Wagschal |first=Uwe |date=1997 |title=Direct Democracy and Public Policymaking |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4007611 |journal=Journal of Public Policy |volume=17 |issue=2 |pages=223–245 |doi=10.1017/S0143814X0000355X |jstor=4007611 |issn=0143-814X|url-access=subscription }}</ref> They soon discovered that merely having the power to veto Parliament's laws was not enough. In 1891 they added the "constitutional amendment initiative". Swiss politics since 1891 have given the world a valuable experience-base with the national-level constitutional amendment initiative.<ref name="Kobach1993">{{Harvnb|Kobach|1993}}</ref> In the past 120 years, more than 240 initiatives have been put to referendums. Most popular initiatives are discussed and approved by the Parliament before the referendum. Out of the remaining initiatives that go to the referendum, only about 10% are approved by voters; in addition, voters often opt for a version of the initiative rewritten by the government. (See [[#Switzerland|"Direct democracy in Switzerland"]] below.){{sfnp|Hirschbühl|2011a}}{{sfnp|Hirschbühl|2011b}}{{sfnp|Hirschbühl|2011c}}{{sfnp|Hirschbühl|2011d}}

Some of the issues surrounding the related notion of a direct democracy using the [[Internet]] and other communications technologies are dealt with in the article on [[e-democracy]] and below under the heading [[#Electronic direct democracy|''Electronic direct democracy'']]. More concisely, the concept of [[open-source governance]] applies principles of the [[free software movement]] to the governance of people, allowing the entire populace to participate in government directly, as much or as little as they please.<ref>
{{Cite book|title = Open Source Democracy|last = Rushkoff|first = Douglas|publisher = Project Gutenberg Self-Publishing|year = 2004|location = Project Gutenburg|url = http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/10753/pg10753.txt}}
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