telephone +49 30 262 3768
e-mail: mjm@berlin.snafu.de
17th Feb. 2000
Geoffrey Munnery
The Referenda Society
29 Cleves Walk
Ilford
Essex
IG6 2NQ
(Dear Mr. Munnery)
In response to my posting a newsletter about direct democracy, citizens' law initiative, referendum and recall (IR+R) in some "on-line" electronic discussions James McGlynn contacted me. As you know, he wants to see some elements of direct democracy introduced in Britain. He mentioned The Referenda Society and I asked him for the address, which he sent.
I am writing to ask about The Referenda Society. What are its aims, how does it work, who are the members, what do they plan?
In recent years I have been writing about, and trying to encourage public discussion of the above matters, relying heavily on the new information and communication technology (ICT), also publishing on paper and lecturing in Germany and eastern Europe, once in Britain. I started by examining the relevance of ICT for participation of people in politics and public affairs, later began to actively propose the introduction of IR+R into "advanced" democracies.
ICT, of course, could become very useful for IR+R. If you wish I can send some Internet "World Wide Web" addresses so that you can see some of my work: If you tell me that you are not yet "on-line" then I would be able send some papers.
(Yours sincerely,)