Direct democracy is frequently opposed to representation as being an expression of an undivided popular will. Framed by forms of direct decision-making, citizenship is seen as an antecedent and for the most part separate issue. In other words, the eligible demos must be defined before direct democracy is invoked. In this paper, I want to provide an alternative perspective by examining forms of direct democracy as instruments of defining the political dimensions of citizenship. I first show how direct democracy involves different forms of representation, more specifically representation as an argument, process and construct. I then proceed to situate this framework in Croatia, showing how the growing reliance on direct democracy affirmed only some forms of representation. In the process, the political dimension of citizenship was not strengthened, but was instrumentalised in a way that disempowers the Croatian demos.
Our 2020 Annual Conference was scheduled to be held at the University of Wrocław in Poland on July 9-11, 2020.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the ICON·S Executive Committee has decided to postpone our 2020 Conference to 2021. Our next Annual Conference will take place from July 8-10, 2021, in Wrocław, Poland.
Procedural details regarding the organization of the 2021 Conference will follow in the months ahead.
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