Inicjatywa ludowa na przykładzie wybranych państw europejskich

Abstract

The present publication concentrates on the instrument of direct democracy, namely popular initiative. The fi rst part of the article presents fundamental types of popular initiatives and explains the most signifi cant rules of their adaptation. The second part presents practical use of popular initiative on the example of three European countries: Switzerland – the country which has the longest history of direct democracy, Italy – the country which has the largest number of popular initiatives forms, and Poland – the country of a so-called new democracy. Moreover, this part shows basic types of citizens’ initiatives used in the given countries and the data regarding numbers of legislative bills introduced. Since there is no Polish literature regarding the subject, the main goal of the article is to compile the available knowledge on civic initiative. The collected information and statistics coming both from Polish and foreign sources attempt to create a possibly complete image of popular initiative as one of signifi cant instruments of direct democracy.