Democracy (Judge Dredd Storyline) - After The Referendum

After The Referendum

The Democracy storyline is generally regarded as having concluded with the Referendum story, which was published in 1991. However although the main Democracy campaign had indeed ended, repercussions continued in the strip for years afterwards. This took three forms.

First, various circumstances originating in "Necropolis" eventually led to the resignation of Chief Judge McGruder, whose rule had been marked by an unprecedented concentration of political power in her own hands. Responding to concerns about the way Mega-City One was governed, new chief judge Volt instituted constitutional reforms in 2117 designed to restore a limited measure of democracy to Mega-City politics. The Justice Department still retained supreme overall control, but some say over decisions at the municipal level was delegated to a new elected mayor and City Council.

Secondly, a trilogy published in 2001–2003 featured an assassin known as the "Chief Judge's Man," who murdered leading democracy activists, allegedly on the orders of Chief Judge Hershey.

Thirdly, although mainstream public support for popular sovereignty had dissipated, there were still diehard extremist groups who were willing to fight for the abolition of the Judge System. The most notorious of these was terrorist group Total War.