muoka wrote: "Featured panel: Barack Obama' Election and Kenyan politics of Identity:
Will he identify himself with the World or with his People?"

I am one of Barack Obama's people. I am a citizen of the United States who lives in Australia. We have elected him president of our country. We are his people, and I expect that he will identify with us.

Barack Obama has a varied ancestry, His father was a black man from a Kenyan tribe. His mother was a white woman from Kansas. He is neither a Kansan nor a Kenyan. He is neither black nor white although he is called a black man because in a racist America anybody with any discernible black ancestry has been labeled black. By electing him president my country has become less racist. I am white and claim him as a member of my tribe.

Some good points made.

What about the idea of referendums on important issues of the day to be included at the time of a general election.

The elected government would have more than just a mandate merely by being chosen over an other party, but a real voice on what the people expect of their government.

The larger a population becomes the harder it is to instal 'real' democracy. Democracy becomes unwieldy and difficult to administer unlike within a small commune where decisions can be made around the dinner table; and where larger influences (like the financial crisis) may require a shift in position.

I don't expect one can ever aspire to real democracy as defined by "by the people and of the people". But we can come a lot closer than where we stand now.

At least the current government is attempting to be more consultative through the summit and the community cabinets.

The proof will be in whether anything comes of that consultation.

In political science, the initiative (also known as popular or citizen's initiative) provides a means by which a petition signed by a certain minimum number of registered voters can force a public vote on a proposed statute, constitutional amendment, charter amendment or ordinance, or, in its minimal form, to simply oblige the executive or legislative bodies to consider the subject by submitting it to the order of the day.

A referendum (plural referendums or referenda), ballot question, or plebiscite (from Latin plebiscita, originally a decree of the Concilium Plebis) is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. This may result in the adoption of a new constitution, a constitutional amendment, a law, the recall of an elected official or simply a specific government policy.

A recall election is a procedure by which voters can remove an elected official from office. Recall has a history dating back to the ancient Athenian democracy.[1] During the American Revolution the Articles of Confederation stipulated that state legislatures might recall delegates from the continental congress.[2] The Virginia Plan, issued at the outset of the Philadelphia Convention of 1787, proposed to pair recall with rotation in office, and to apply these dual principles to the lower house of the national legislature.

Some of the western United States have various forms of initiative, referendum and recall. They have all been tried, and they all work.

david f, Obama will not be the saviour of the US.He is too socialist.He is putting the US into more debt.Follow Ron Paul the Texan ,he predicted this debacle and sees the reduction of debt and small Govt as the way to go.

Democracy!
What is our role in the election of the leader and other top officers in a party?
Who creates the party program and what is our role for the creation of this program?
What is the role of the mass media in the creation of the public oppinion?
Do the mass media write the truth? Do the promote peoples interests or their own?
Is our level high enouph to understand what is truth and what not, what benefit us and what not?
Is the electoral system fair or we vote other party and our votes go to an other, why the greens with about 7.5% do not have any federal MP?
What is our role as citizens between the elections?
Can PM take decisions for very important issues which was not in his program in the last elections and which will have high impact on our future or violate basic human rights?
How we can block the PM of ignoring the majority of citizens on any issue?
What about the democracy in work places? What about the democracy in scools?
What about the democracy in economy, culture, religioys democracy, community etc?
How we can deepen and widen the democracy?
How we can learn to live democraticaly?
What is the democratic principals, values?
What about the democracy in local, national or international level?
Can we use foreign tanks to create democracy?
What about the non democratic movements, as NAZI etc, how democracy defents its self from all these non democratic movements?
Is democracy compatible with any kind of descriminations?
What about the e-democracy, referendum, online referendum, democracy now, opem democracy etc?
Antonios Symeonakis
Adelaide

thanks Antonios and everyone else. Seems we can all see the problems and the answers it is now just a matter of convincing those in power to relinquish some of it to us the people. That sounds like a tough request. Anyone got any ideas on how to achieve that one? Maybe we do need a revolution.

Antonios brings up an interesting point about workplaces, schools etc. Should we be looking to introduce democracy across the board? Businesses today are nothing more than "tinpot african dictatorships" with employees being virtual slaves to the owners and executives of the firm. Only the bosses make decisions and workers have no free will while at work. Hardly democratic and definitely unfair and the unequal power relationships allow and encourage exploitation of workers by their bosses. Should we be trying to extend participatory democracy to workplaces? Is that socialism?