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Protesters gather in front of the Icelandic parliament after the 2008 crash. Wikimedia
Commons/OddurBen. Some rights reserved.
Iceland went to the polls on October 20, 2012 to vote on a new crowd-sourced constitutional bill [2]
that emanated from the countrys financial crash of 2008.
The drafting of the bill was guided by a National Assembly of 950 citizens drawn at random from the
national registry, meaning that every Icelander eighteen years of age or more had an equal chance
of being invited to take a seat in the Assembly. Convening for a day in late 2010, the National
Assembly decided that Iceland does need a new constitution, as the parliament had also resolved by
63 votes to zero, and laid down the lines for some key provisions that a new constitution needed to
contain, including one person, one vote and national ownership of the countrys natural resources.
It does not happen every day that ordinary citizens are offered the opportunity to help rewrite their
countrys constitution. Like 522 other Icelanders, I decided to put my name forward. Friends of mine
collected fifty endorsements, the maximum allowed (30 was the minimum), and I then left the
country for Africa and did not return back home until after the election. I did not spend a penny as
there was no campaign. Like other candidates, I was interviewed for three or four minutes on state
radio, in my case by phone from South Africa, and I posted a few short articles on the internet with
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1. Do you want the proposals of the Constitutional Council to form the basis of a legislative bill
for a new Constitution? 67% said Yes.
2. Would you want natural resources which are not in private ownership to be declared the
property of the nation in a new Constitution? 83% said Yes.
3. Would you want a new Constitution to include provisions on a National Church of Iceland?
57% said Yes.
4. Would you want a new Constitution to permit personal elections to the Althing to a greater
degree than permitted at present? 78% said Yes.
5. Would you want a new Constitution to include provisions to the effect that the votes of the
electorate across the country should have the same force? 67% said Yes.
6. Would you want a new Constitution to include provisions to the effect that a specific
proportion of the electorate could call for a national referendum on a specific matter? 73%
said Yes.
With such unequivocal guidance from the people via their clear expression of the popular will, the
parliament must now finalize the bill and ratify it. The 1944 constitution stipulates that, for the bill to
take effect, the next parliament, following a parliamentary election in April 2013, must also ratify the
bill.
Here the plot begins to thicken. The current opposition and allied forces have at least three reasons
for opposing the bill. First, they have strong ties to the fishing industry that has for many years
received fishing quotas practically gratis from the government, a corrupt arrangement that the bill
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About the author
Thorvaldur Gylfason is Professor of Economics at the University of Iceland. He was one of 25
representatives in Icelands Constitutional Council in session from April to July 2011, elected by the
nation and appointed by parliament to revise Icelands constitution.
Related Articles
From the people to the people, a new constitution [12]
Thorhildur Thorleifsdottir [19]Real democracy in Iceland? [13]
Kristinn Mr rslsson [20]The Icelandic constitutional experiment [14]
Giulia Dessi [21]Icelandic constitution on the way [15]
Giulia Dessi [21]Hope from below: composing the commons in Iceland [16]
Richard Bater [22]Solomon comes to Iceland [17]
Herdis Sigurgrimsdottir [23]Iceland's economic downturn is a freedom of speech upturn [18]
Kim Andersen [24]
Read On
Elkins, Zachary , Tom Ginsburg, and James Melton (2009), Endurance of National Constitutions [7],
Cambridge University Press.
Elkins, Zachary , Tom Ginsburg, and James Melton (2012), A Review of Icelands Draft Constitution
[5], ConstitutionMaking.org, University of Chicago, 15 October.
Gylfason, Thorvaldur (2011a), From Crisis to Constitution [8], VoxEU, 11 October.
Gylfason, Thorvaldur (2011b), Crowds and Constitutions [9], VoxEU, 13 October.
Gylfason, Thorvaldur (2012a), Finance and Constitutions [10], VoxEU, 11 April.
Gylfason, Thorvaldur (2012b), Constitutions: Financial Crisis Can Lead to Change, Challenge 55,
September-October, pp. 106-122
Gylfason, Thorvaldur (2013), From Collapse to Constitution: The Case of Iceland [11], in Public
Debt, Global Governance and Economic Dynamism, Springer (forthcoming).
Iceland Constitutional Bill [2] (2011), delivered by Constitutional Council to Parliament 29 July.
Subjects
Iceland [25]
Civil society [26]
Culture [27]
Democracy and government [28]
Economics [29]
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Related Articles
From the people to the people, a new constitution [12]
Thorhildur Thorleifsdottir [19]
Real democracy in Iceland? [13]
Kristinn Mr rslsson [20]
The Icelandic constitutional experiment [14]
Giulia Dessi [21]
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Links:
[1] https://www.opendemocracy.net/author/thorvaldur-gylfason
[2] http://stjornarskrarfelagid.is/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Iceland_New_Constitutional_Bill.pdf
[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wH7vOvJVs3w
[4] http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/v1ch2s23.html
[5] https://webspace.utexas.edu/elkinszs/web/CCP%20Iceland%20Report.pdf
[6] http://voxeu.org/article/constitution-making-action-case-iceland
[7] http://www.cambridge.org/gb/knowledge/isbn/item2427594/?site_locale=en_GB
[8] http://www.voxeu.org/article/crisis-constitution-insights-iceland
[9] http://www.voxeu.org/article/crowds-and-constitutions-insights-iceland
[10] http://www.voxeu.org/article/finance-and-constitutions
[11] http://www.cesifo-group.de/portal/pls/portal/docs/1/1214953.PDF
[12]
https://www.opendemocracy.net/thorhildur-thorleifsdottir/from-people-to-people-new-constitution
[13] https://www.opendemocracy.net/kristinn-m%C3%A1r-%C3%A1rs%C3%A6lsson/real-democracy-i
n-iceland
[14] https://www.opendemocracy.net/giulia-dessi/icelandic-constitutional-experiment
[15] https://www.opendemocracy.net/giulia-dessi/icelandic-constitution-on-way
[16] https://www.opendemocracy.net/richard-bater/hope-from-below-composing-commons-in-iceland
[17] https://www.opendemocracy.net/herdis-sigurgrimsdottir/solomon-comes-to-iceland
[18] https://www.opendemocracy.net/kim-andersen/icelands-economic-downturn-is-%E2%80%9Dfre
edom-of-speech%E2%80%9D-upturn
[19] https://www.opendemocracy.net/author/thorhildur-thorleifsdottir
[20] https://www.opendemocracy.net/author/kristinn-mr-rslsson
[21] https://www.opendemocracy.net/author/giulia-dessi
[22] https://www.opendemocracy.net/author/richard-bater
[23] https://www.opendemocracy.net/author/herdis-sigurgrimsdottir
[24] https://www.opendemocracy.net/author/kim-andersen
[25] https://www.opendemocracy.net/countries/iceland
[26] https://www.opendemocracy.net/topics/civil-society
[27] https://www.opendemocracy.net/topics/culture
[28] https://www.opendemocracy.net/topics/democracy-and-government
[29] https://www.opendemocracy.net/topics/economics
[30] https://www.opendemocracy.net/topics/equality
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[32] https://www.opendemocracy.net/topics/international-politics
[33] https://www.opendemocracy.net/topics/internet
[34] https://www.opendemocracy.net/view_content_by_region/europe.jsp
[35] https://www.opendemocracy.net/can-europe-make-it/spotlight-on-icelandic-experiment
[36] https://www.opendemocracy.net/can-europe-make-it/reinventing-left
[37] https://www.opendemocracy.net/can-europe-make-it/europe-20
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