Inicjatywa ludowa na Litwie i Łotwie po 1991 roku– analiza porównawcza

Direct democracy is seen as a complementary form of government in relation to representative democracy. It is intended to compensate for the shortcomings of representative democracy, and to ensure the direct participation of citizens in the exercise of power. One of the institutions of direct democracy, guaranteed in the constitutions and other legal acts of Lithuania and Latvia, is a popular initiative. Despite similar historical and political experiences, Lithuania and Latvia differ significantly between each other in their approach to direct democracy, including the popular initiative. The primary hypothesis of this paper is a statement that the popular initiative is a major institution of direct democracy used in these countries, but due to the difficult formal requirements, the institution of popular initiative is ineffective.