Direct Democracy Forum

Direct Democracy Forum

A history of the Direct Democracy Forum

Ian Green, the founder of the Direct Democracy Forum was born in Geelong, Australia in December 1962. In an effort to improve government policies he joined the Liberal Party (not the young liberals) in 1980 and at eighteen years of age became a branch secretary and a representative on various committees and councils. The humiliating defeat of the parliamentary Liberal Party in the State and Federal elections of 1982 and 1983 eliminated any chance of his policy contributions becoming law so Ian allowed his membership of the party to lapse.

December 1984 saw an early Federal election so with only three weeks from nomination as an independent candidate until the election (for American readers, Australian elections can be called by the Prime Minister at any time to take advantage of a perceived temporary electoral superiority or unpreparedness of the opposition!) Ian mounted a test campaign in the local Federal electorate. For the Liberals, the seat was virtually unwinnable, Labor having held it in perpetuity except for a Liberal member who happened to be an international Australian sporting hero. Needless to say, an unheard of independent candidate with no campaign funds failed also to win it.

Still, the dream that citizens of ordinary means could be able to influence government policy persisted, as did an abhorrence of the way the party system (an extra-constitutional phenomenon) had distorted the democratic nature of the constitution.

The next step for Mr Green was to use letters to the editor of local newspapers to try to make a difference, and it may have had some effect in some cases but he decided even if he found himself in Parliament, the problem would still exist for people in general. The party power-brokers dictated policy and hence the law of the land. There had to be a better way for a more universal citizenry to become involved in the legislative process and to protect all people from the malevolent and irresponsible acts of governments, by developing a new constitution.

In December 1992 Ian Green founded the Republican Democratic Party, using the titles of "Republican" and "Democratic" in an attempt to communicate a central and moderate political identity. The founder, Ian Green was looking forward to a time in the future (which has now arrived) when information technology would be sufficiently developed to allow the kind of universal participation envisaged. Here is the definitive text from that time.

In March 1993 the name was changed to the Direct Democracy Party as this better described its aims. Here are texts written that year, the DDP flyer and A Vision of a 21st Century Democracy.

While planning for the move to an on-line environment it was decided that the title of "party" was not necessary and may inhibit the universality of our intended appeal. We want people to be able to be a member even if they are part of another political party. This way the movement for direct democracy can cross party boundaries and become a truly democratic force. Additionally, the prewritten constitution was dropped in favour of one to be developed later that more people could call their own.

The Direct Democracy Forum existed in the Microsoft Network from the MSN launch on August 24th 1995 until its first anniversary. This date saw the expiry (and non-renewal) of most of the original MSN Independent Content Provider contracts. DDF, as you can see, is now being re-launched on the World Wide Web.