CASE OF ICELANDABPOL112 – PROBLEMS IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND ADMINISTRATION

ICELAND

PROFILE:

Capital: Reykjavik

Demonym: Icelander

Government: Unitary Parliamentary Constitutional Republic

Population: 325, 671 (January 2014)

Currency: Icelandic Krona (ISK)

GOVERNMENT:

President: Olafur Ragnar Grimsson (August1996)

PM: Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson (May 2013)

Speaker: Einar Kristinn Guofinnsson

SC President: Markus Sigurbjornsson

WORLD’S FIRST CROWDSOURCED

CONSTITUTIONTHE ICELANDIC CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM

WORLD’S FIRST CROWDSOURCED CONSTITUTION

HOW DID IT START?

In 2008, Iceland experienced a massive social unrest because of its heavily indebted banks—financial meltdown.

As a result, Icelanders took their noisy mass protests to the doors of Parliament through their “Pots and Pans

Revolution”.

Many government officials left office, and the lack of political leadership in the country supported the growing

general distrust of the citizens to their legislative leaders.

The country, then, decided to modernize its Constitution.

But instead of consulting their country’s legislators, officials went straight to the citizens themselves.

Ergo, the act resulted to the world’s FIRST CROWDSOURCED CONSTITUTION.

WORLD’S FIRST CROWDSOURCED CONSTITUTION

Iceland has one of the highest penetrations of internet usage—94% of its population has access to the Web.

Early 2010: The parliament appointed a constitutional committee of 7 people and a national assembly

comprised of 950 individuals drawn at random from the national registry.

October 2010: A national election was held in which 25 (15 men and 10 women) individuals were elected from a

roster of 522 from all walks of life; they are called as the 25-membered Constitutional Advisory Council.

The Constitutional Advisory Council sought feedback through social media sites—Facebook, Twitter, et al, and then

drafted a new Constitution based on the votes gathered.

WORLD’S FIRST CROWDSOURCED CONSTITUTION

• The ballot, which is non-binding, included six questions

written by the Constitutional Council, to which voters could

either respond ‘yes’ or ‘no’.

• The vote was held on Saturday, 19 October 2010.

• Nearly half of the island's 235,000 eligible voters

participated.

• Initial results showed that 66% of participants voted in

favour of a Constitution drafted by the Council.

• Among six questions put to the electorates, the highest

“yes” vote, 81 percent, favored a constitutional guarantee to

ensure that natural resources not already privately owned

should be declared national property.

WORLD’S FIRST CROWDSOURCED CONSTITUTION

The constitution draft was finished on 29 July 2011 and presented to parliament on the same day. Among theimportant proposals were:

‘one person, one vote‘

a referendum on abolishing the state church

a number of changes to government, including not automatically making the biggest party's leader PM, introducinga ten-year limit for PM terms, and that a vote of no confidence should have to include a proposed replacementPM.

obliging the state to provide internet access to all citizens;

introducing a three-term limit for the president

allowing 15% of voters to put bills to parliament or call for a referendum on proposed laws;

restricting government size to ten ministers, and barring ministers from being MPs at the same time; and

declaring Iceland's natural resources public property.

WORLD’S FIRST CROWDSOURCED CONSTITUTION: In A Coma

The draft was sent to Iceland’s parliament—called the Althing, where it was supposed to be

passed, receive voter approval in a referendum, and, ultimately, be passed again by a newly formed

parliament.

The Althing was dissolved on March 28, 2013 without approving the new Constitution.

Once the new parliament approves the constitution with a super-majority, it will be put out in a

referendum and Iceland’s people will have to pass it with at least 40% of eligible voters approving

it, implying an 80% voter turnout.

Overall, the drafting of the what could have been the first crowdsourced constitution only took 4

months.

REFERENCES

Morris, H. 2012. Crowdsourcing Iceland’s Constitution. USA.

http://rendezvous.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/24/crowdsourcing-icelands-

constitution/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0

Euroactiv. 2012. Icelander’s Back First Crowdsourced Constitution. France.

http://www.euractiv.com/enlargement/icelanders-opens-way-crowdsource-

news-515543

Farmer, L. 2013. Iceland Writes First Crowdsourced Constitution. USA.

http://www.governing.com/topics/politics/lawmaking/gov-iceland-writes-

worlds-1st-crowd-sourced-constitution.html

Wikipedia. 2014. Icelandic Constitutional Reform, 2010-13

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icelandic_constitutional_reform,_2010%E2%80

%9313#Election

Mirani, L. 2013. Iceland’s experiment with crowd-sourcing its constitution just

died. USA.

http://qz.com/68910/icelands-experiment-with-crowd-sourcing-its-

constitution-just-died/

Government Offices in Iceland. 1999. Constitution of the Republic of Iceland.

Iceland.

http://www.government.is/constitution/

Iceland Trade Directory. 2014. Political System in Iceland. Iceland.

http://www.icetradedirectory.com/english/about_iceland/political_system_i

n_iceland/