Popular assembly

All eligible members meet in person to debate and decide laws, budgets and appointments.

The oldest form of democracy. It maximises direct participation but is limited by the number of people who can meaningfully deliberate together.

• The Landsgemeinde of Glarus and Appenzell Innerrhoden in Switzerland.
• New England town meetings.
• Assemblies in Zapatista communities and in Christiania.

Attendance favours those with time and confidence; open voting can expose people to social pressure; large populations cannot all speak.

Popular assemblies persist where communities are small and traditions strong; elsewhere they are combined with representative or randomly selected bodies.