Direct democracy institutions and their practices over the ages

Chapter 3 retraces the historical evolution of the idea of direct legislation from medieval assemblies to modern constitutional systems. It challenges existing myths including the notion that direct democracy is a recent innovation, or that its roots extend to 13th-century Alpine communities such as the Swiss Landsgemeinden, where citizens gathered to decide local affairs collectively. Instead, it stresses the role of the intellectual and political transformations of the Atlantic Revolutions, during which sovereignty, freedom and popular ratification were redefined. The chapter highlights how these ideas materialized through anarchist and populist movements, leading to the Swiss model’s development and its diffusion to the United States and Uruguay. Historical evidence demonstrates that direct democracy’s progress was uneven, shaped by social mobilization, decentralization and ideological support for popular sovereignty. Reformist elites institutionalized initiatives and referendums where confederal structures and civic autonomy prevailed, while conservative dominance often curtailed them. The chapter concludes that direct democracy’s endurance depends on the convergence of mass participation, institutional openness and decentralized governance – conditions that explain its survival in a few enduring examples and its limited spread elsewhere.