Overview of a forgotten proposal: The proposal for constitutional reform by the General Council of Asturias on semi-direct democracy
Abstract
The draft of the Constitution made in 1978 by the Constitutional Commission comprised a broad set of mechanisms of semi-direct democracy. In June the same year, after the attempt by the Italian Radical Party to derogate the system for the public financing of political parties through a referendum, a fear that populists would use those mechanisms to prevent the consolidation of the constitutional regime led the constituent to considerably soften the original proposal, resulting in a model of democracy based, almost undoubtedly, in representation. Almost forty years later, in 2014, the General Council of the Principality of Asturias put forward to the Spanish Parliament a proposal to reform the Constitution, which suggested the partial recovery of some of the ideas of that draft. This paper aims to analyse in detail the key elements of this interesting proposal, by highlighting its virtues and flaws considering comparative experiences.
Received: 19.07.2019
Accepted: 16.12.2019
Published online: 31.12.2019
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Last update: 08/02/2022
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