[DarinRobbins]

The Green Party is the only political party that promotes direct democracy in our electoral campaigns and our platform. Direct democracy is the process through which the important issues and ideas that the Green Party supports can best be implemented. It is the putting into practice of our vision of a future society. A society that would be democratically run on all levels, especially the political, economic, and infrastructure levels.

Worker councils and popular assemblies, democratically organized in the workplace and local areas, would decide on public policies together. Worker, farmer, and tenant cooperatives would replace global corporations with sustainable local economies based on democratic decision making. These could then form trade associations for the purpose of industrial and agricultural specialization. Other methods of direct democratic decision making would include participatory budgeting, community land trusts, initiative and referendum, and police review boards.

A society where the collective good is prioritized by a real political and economic democracy would foster voluntary cooperation. A decentralized democratic society would minimize the layers of hierarchy which create inequality of wealth, so you have not only the freedom but also the resources and the ability to meet basic needs. Direct democracy transforms individual free choices into equally shared collective action. It demonstrates that individual freedom and collective benefit are not mutually exclusive. Direct democracy is the process where the methods of health or security or the social good is determined by the people themselves. The inclusive participation of direct democracy expresses the cooperative ownership of the society.

That is what the Green Party is fighting for.