1. Direct democracy at the turn of the century; 2. Terms of the debate surrounding direct democracy; 3. Myths and facts behind the use of mechanisms of direct democracy: a worldwide analysis; 4. Direct democracy within non-democratic regimes; 5. Direct democracy within weak democracies: some cases from Latin America; 6. Direct democracy within democracies: the case of Uruguay (historic evolution, and voting behavior); 7. Uruguayan citizen-initiated mechanisms of direct democracy as agents of vertical accountability; 8. Conclusions.

David Altman received his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Notre Dame and is Associate Professor of Political Science at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Born in Uruguay, he works on comparative politics with an emphasis on the quality of democratic institutions, mechanisms of direct democracy and executive-legislative relations. He is an Associate Researcher for the Uruguayan National Agency for Research and Innovation, was the winner of a Junior Post-Doctoral Scholars in the Study of Democracy Competition of the Woodrow Wilson Center and the Ford Foundation, and has previously held a Fulbright-LASPAU fellowship. He also was Guest Research Assistant Professor at the Helen Kellogg Institute for International Studies. His recent work has appeared in Electoral Studies, Party Politics, Democratization, the Journal of Legislative Studies, the Swiss Political Science Review and the Journal of Developing Economies.