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TopParticipation In Direct Democracy
In the past eras, the relationship between individual and the institution of government was established on power (Iglesias, 1993, pp. 269-283). The public (named vassal) had various responsibilities and had to obey the government. By forming nation-states and establishment of democratic governments and administrative structures, the concept of vassal turned into citizen; a citizen who is not only responsible, but also holds a collection of rights and freedoms. Accordingly, a legal relationship is defined between people as a citizens and governments as power institutions. In this situation, government or the power institution has no right to change the domain of citizens' civil rights and freedoms. Government has to execute commitments that citizens delegate to it as a part of a legal relationship - holding elections and giving the right of representation (Behrouzi, 2006).
Safe, real, free and periodical elections are among the special attributes of democratic society (Urbinati, 2008; Brennan & Lomasky. 1997); in this approach, government is not an independent institution separates from the citizens and cannot define rights and freedoms of the people or pass laws on its own. Rights, freedoms and basic laws must already be developed in the form of constitution and normal laws and implemented by the government. In this situation, government should be impartial about the customs, traditions, cultures and beliefs of the people and look at people as citizens of the society.
It must be considered that in early state-cities, actions were carried out by direct and active participation of the citizens. For example, during voting and polls about doing or not doing an action, all the citizens participate in election and polling process directly through face to face interactions. But today, due to the expansion of societies, relationships and multi agent interactions, direct and absolute participation of all citizens in social arenas is not possible; therefore, based on the principal-agent relationship (Hughes, 2003), through the process of election, citizens give their governing right to their representatives (agents) who should respond to citizens (principal). Also it should be considered that the necessity of representatives’ responsiveness to the public is transparency, rule of law, informational justice, existence of independent juridical institutions and independent, free and impressing Media. This will guarantee the survival of all democratic and citizen-oriented societies.
It can be seen that this level of participation is not easily achievable and establishing new and suitable information systems of decision making and planning models is its prerequisite.