Institutions of Direct Democracy: Regulatory Issues

Today, the institution of democracy as a political system in which the people are recognized as the source of power is facing new challenges. Unlike traditional representative democracy, direct democracy expands civil rights and freedoms and increases the responsibility of citizens at the local level, while at the same time creating some potential benefits for the social development of both individuals and society as a whole. In recent years, researchers have become increasingly interested in such aspects of the dialogue between government and society as the analysis of methods of political participation of citizens based on the principles of public policy or grassroots management. The purpose of the article is to examine the experience of some countries, in particular Switzerland and China, in implementing direct democracy and governance mechanisms at the grassroots level. Through the use of the method of political and legal analysis, the origins, features of legal regulation and administrative and managerial approaches to issues of grassroots management from the perspective of direct democracy are considered. An attempt is made to assess the potential of the legal conceptualization of direct democracy and the adaptation of personal self-government systems to the conditions of social growth of communities. It is concluded that from the point of view of social development issues, the examples of the countries under consideration can show their difference from the classical Western European idea of a democratic society, which may allow for a better understanding of existing obstacles in the development of modern democracies.