| Special Workshop Title: | Practical and Theoretical Problems in Legislation. Research in Legisprudence |
| Author: |
Michiel Elst, Professor at the Universities of Brussels and Antwerp, Legal advisor to the Flemish (regional) Parliament |
| Paper Title: | Communicative Democracy and the Citizens’ Direct Participation in the Legislative Process |
| Abstract: |
The paper examines the opportunities and limits of
citizens’ participation in the legislative process. Recent political
and legal debates in Belgium on the needs to introduce elements of
communicative, deliberative democracy in order to bridge the rift
between citizens and politics are used as an illustration of the
difficult relationship between direct and indirect democracy. The main
question is to know whether in a representative democracy there is and
should be any room left for citizens to play an effective role in evaluating existing
laws or in suggesting modifications to laws tout court, not just in
theory, but also in the daily practice of parliaments.
The paper focuses especially on citizens’ participation in the formal legislative process through hearings, the right of petition, consultative or decisive referendums. Are these elements of people’s sovereignty reconcilable with a constitutional system based on national sovereignty, the nation being defined as the abstract whole of past, present and future generations of the country? Do these instruments really improve democracy? Or are they just formalities, mere symbols, lacking the real strength to change fundamentally the balance of power? How effective are they in bringing citizens closer to political decision-making? |
This page was last updated on: 2003-05-20.