While there has been an explosive and statistically significant increase in the use of mechanisms of direct democracy (MDDs) since the early 1900s, the global trend has taken a negative turn since 2010. However, the years 2022 and 2023, with a combined total of 73 MDDs, appear to have broken with the declining tendency observed in recent years, showing an increase of almost 45% compared to 2020 and 2021. Of these 73 national MDDs, approximately half were obligatory referendums (32), a quarter were referendums against recently approved legislation (18), a fifth were authorities’ plebiscites (15), and about a tenth were popular initiatives (8). The first section of this work focuses on one of the most striking trends in the evolution of direct democracy, which is its close alignment with global electoral democracy levels. The second section examines the contemporary uses and trends of direct democracy, while the third section provides illustrative examples of contemporary direct democracy. We then conclude.While there has been an explosive and statistically significant increase in the use of mechanisms of direct democracy (MDDs) since the early 1900s, the global trend has taken a negative turn since 2010. However, the years 2022 and 2023, with a combined total of 73 MDDs, appear to have broken with the declining tendency observed in recent years, showing an increase of almost 45% compared to 2020 and 2021. Of these 73 national MDDs, approximately half were obligatory referendums (32), a quarter were referendums against recently approved legislation (18), a fifth were authorities’ plebiscites (15), and about a tenth were popular initiatives (8). The first section of this work focuses on one of the most striking trends in the evolution of direct democracy, which is its close alignment with global electoral democracy levels. The second section examines the contemporary uses and trends of direct democracy, while the third section provides illustrative examples of contemporary direct democracy. We then conclude.