Lýðræðissetrið Demokratisentret Democracy Center

A proposal concerning the merger of five local government areas into one was put to the vote in September 1997. On the same occasion, a survey was made to find out voters’ opinion on the 13 proposals for a name for the new area that would result from the merger. The voters were asked to put a 1 against the one they liked best, “and so on”. Further instructions were available at the polling stations. The method was not publicised in advance to anyone apart from some of the election officers, and the names were

At Hvanneyri, a small population centre in the west of Iceland, two building sites had to be chosen, one for a laboratory for the Agricultural College, the other for the farm technology department of the Agricultural Research Institute. As the property was owned by the state, the Ministry of Agriculture asked the principal of the college to recommend suitable sites. There were different opinions about possible sites. As employees of the Agricultural College and the Agricultural Research Institute, the

A national referendum was held in Iceland in 1993 on a restructuring of local government. A government committee had recommended mergers that would have affected local government areas in most parts of the country. These were put to the vote in the local areas. The majority in two-thirds of the local areas were against the committee’s proposal. But although the proposal was rejected, there was nothing to indicate what people actually wanted instead: it is not certain that they wanted the status quo to

In 2004 it was decided which flower should be the National Flower of Iceland, based on a public opinion poll held by Landvernd, the Icelandic Environment Association, and the newspaper Morgunblaðið. The project was managed by representatives of four ministries, but the actual work was carried out by Landvernd. The poll was done online during October 1-15 by use of ballots printed in Morgunblaðið. The result was announced in the presence of the President and the Minister of Agriculture.

In the spring of 2008 Landvernd, the Icelandic Environment Association, managed a sequential choice project for the Gjábakki road construction project between Lake Thingvallavatn and Lake Laugarvatn, with the assistance and supervision of the Democracy Center. The choices presented were five in all. Road 1 was the old road, Road 2 was the road location presented by the Icelandic Road Administration. Of the votes cast 1,351 were valid.

Democracy Center has for some time made efforts to initiate fund voting among MPs and deputy MPs on two separate issues, i.e. fisheries control and a master plan for the exploitation and protection of the country’s energy resources. The project has been presented to them in conversations, either individually or in pairs of two.

The Democracy Center carried out a Fund Voting project in Skaftárhreppur Municipality (South Iceland) in the period October 2009 - November 2010. The seven issues voted on were as follows: