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The aim of this paper is to present basic postulates of immediate democracy, determine theoretically its basic instruments, reflect on its historical development, explain justification and nonjustification of criticism it has or has not been exposed to and to show how it works in practice by an example of a number of European countries. It also deals with whether and how the immediate democracy has affected economic development and if it has affected the systems where it has more frequently been practised. The paper emphasizes advantages of immediate democracy and possibilities offered by the well thought out and successfully applied immediate democracy, a necessity to create more space for its faster and more powerful development, especially in economically unstable, developing transitional countries with shaken confidence in ruling political structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]