Referendums

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Referendums

• By Jonathan Sankey

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• Referendums are a device of direct democracy or
  in other words they are one of its mechanisms.
  However, they can and have been used widely
  within representative democracies. In each case
  of the use of referenda, states have used
  different rules and fitted them into the
  political system in different ways.
• The referendum in terms of electoral systems is a
  relatively rare form.
• - only a few countries use it as a long
  established and frequently used device.
• Switzerland, the USA and Australia in that order
  use them most frequently.

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• Athenian version of Direct Democracy 
• The Assembly of the Demos
• -all male citizens could come here to listen,
  discuss and vote on decrees that affected every
  aspect of Athenian life.
• The Council of 500.
• -this represented the full time government of
  Athens.
• -it consisted of 500 citizens, 50 from each of
  the ten tribes. Serving on a 1 year term.
• -the council had some independent legislative
  power
• -its main role however was preparing the agenda
  and drafting the legislation for the assembly to
  debate and vote on.
• -a preliminary decree would be passed and this
  would go forward to be voted on by the Assembly
  of the Demos.
• -interestingly Athens lacked a mechanism known as
  the initiative

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• Other countries use Referenda on a more sporadic
  basis.
• -only on referendum has ever been put to the
  entire UK electorate 1975 vote on whether not
  to stay in the EEC.
•  
• In the UK referendums are not binding.
• -even when a referendum bill is passed by
  Parliament, Parliamentary sovereignty and is
  right to reverse its own bulls means that
  referenda can never be binding here.
• The first used in this country was the 1973 vote
  on the status of Northern Ireland.
• -8 have been held since but they have been on
  regional issues devolution to Wales and Scotland
  and the setting up of the London Assembly.

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• Ireland uses Referendums much more.
• -it has a codified constitution i.e. there is a
  singular document which contains its constitution
  rather than a plethora of legal and statutory
  bills that make up the British system. which
  means it has a provision made for the use of
  referendums.
• -as well as the NI peace agreement it has held
  referendums on
• -many EU related issues
• -abortion and divorce
• -other constitutional issues
• Although the use of referendums has risen sharply
  in the last century across the democratic world,
  most representative democracies use them
  relatively seldomly. The reasons for this are
  that politicians are wary of employing their use
  as they might have the effect of eroding
  representative democracy and their own role as
  representatives.

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• Australia
• -Australians have held 44 national referendums
  since the first one in 1906 and they have become
  accepted as the standard means by which their
  constitution can be amended.
• -in addition 3 referendums on non constitutional
  matters which included the national song and
  conscription.
• -the individual states have held many referendums
  as well as the national Government

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• The process in Australia needs the consent of
  both houses of Parliament by a majority before it
  can be put to a referendum across the country.
• -the proposal must receive an absolute majority,
  nationally, and,
• -a majority in all 4 of the 6 states.
• The reason for this system according to Don
  Aitkin is that the framers of the constitution
  wanted
• one that would last but they wanted hurdles
  that would trip the badly thought out or the
  ephemeral but would still allow useful changes.
• He goes on to say that.
• it is unlikely that they intended the test to be
  as difficult as it has proved to be.

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• Of the first 80 proposals for referendums, only
  36 got Parliamentary approval of which 8 were
  approved by the people. That's just a 10 success
  rate for proposals.
• This is probably due to three main factors

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• The Height of The Hurdles
• -the nature of the 6 State system
• -the states were originally colonies and like in
  the USA ceded power to the Federal Government /
  Commonwealth
• -this means that nearly all referendums on
  constitutional matters are diminutive of State
  power and as such are resisted by state
  politicians.
• -this makes the severity of the requisite 4/6
  majority in the states all the more difficult to
  surpass. There have been examples of referenda
  where a national majority has been gained but
  where only 3/6 states had majorities.

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• Australians take part in, on average, 1 election
  per year
• -A referendum offers a difficult constitutional
  question which need an unqualified yes or no.
• -Aitkin suggests that because the Constitution is
  a legal rather than a political document, it is
  extremely difficult for the electorate to make a
  well educated decision, -sometimes the referendum
  issue can be over one word or a sentence in a
  document making the consequences almost
  unknowable
• -as a result, puzzled by the wording and battered
  from both sides by the politicians, they often
  just vote no.

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• Partisan Politics - Aitkin suggests that although
  procedural difficulties are important, part
  politics is often the greater hurdle.
• -the party system is old and extremely stable
• -party discipline is very string, coalitions are
  unknown and politicians never cross the floor of
  the houses
• -because of the frequency of elections, parties
  are geared towards election winning.

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• There needs to be an agreement between the
  parties in order to secure a referendum on a
  proposal. That is obviously going to be difficult
  in this partisan environment.
• -indeed agreement between federal parties has
  usually been short-lived
• -parties have often opposed extension of powers
  which they initially proposed when, out of
  office, their opponents proposed them.

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• The frequency of elections means that the short
  term and changing nature of party welfare makes
  an opposition reluctant to agree with anything
  proposed by the Government.
• -the parties are also suspicious of how their
  opponents would use any extensions of their
  powers when in office.

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• The Electorate
• Australians generally have high levels of
  partisanship with low levels of political
  interest.
• -the party position on an issue tends to
  determine that of the citizen
• -in contrast to the USA, the Australian
  constitution is not a well known document, nor is
  it taught in schools.
• Referendum campaigns are short affairs, due to
  restraints on the time between proposal and vote
• -each citizen is provided, by law, with
  statements written on behalf of the supporters
  and opponents.
• -these serve are the basis of campaigns
• -exaggeration and distortion of the issues are
  common place and often the intellectual level of
  debates on the issues at stake are appalling

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• Aitkin says that because often opponents reduce
  the issue to one of either
• -more or less powers to politicians or to
• -centralism vs. federalism
• people often make up their minds on the basis of
  intuition and guesswork.

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• The USA and the Initiative.
•  
•  
• The Initiative - this essentially where a private
  member of the public initiated the process of a
  referendum, bringing their own policy ideas to
  the table.
• -this method is used in varying amounts across
  the USA and in Switzerland.
•  
• The Recall - this is where a piece of legislation
  can be reversed if a sufficient number of people
  believe it to be wrong.
• -normally a referendum can be called if enough
  people petition the state or national government.

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• The USA is one of the very few democracies that
  has never had a national referendum. Nonetheless,
  it is second only to Switzerland as the country
  that has the most experience of direct democracy.
• -the States themselves are the bodies that employ
  direct democracy. This is rooted in tradition as
  many of them used it to ratify and approve their
  state constitutions in their early days

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• In the USA, the use of Initiatives has exploded
  and citizens have remained supportive of the
  process
• - recent surveys reveal that familiarity with
  direct democracy does not breed contempt for its
  expanded use.
• - 78 of people in Washington state said that the
  use of initiatives were a good thing as did 69
  of Californians.
• - 57 of people support having initiatives at the
  national level.

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• The populist movement in the USA has been the
  main supporter of the expanded use of
  initiatives.Their outlook consists of three main
  tenets
• 1) a concern for individual self interest and the
  common persons aspiration for political equality
  and social and economic opportunity.
• 2) an assumption that the common people are
  trustworthy and competent, and
• 3) a mistrust of a concentration of power in the
  hands of elites.
• It was thought that the increased use of
  initiatives would fix the problems of
  representative government by diminishing the
  influence that special interests and party
  machines had over legislatures.

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• Of 1000 Californians asked why they support
  direct democracy
• 445 said it Gives people a voice
• 113 Allows direct participation
• 107 Allows for policy change
• 71 Forces issues onto the agenda
• 41 Makes voters aware of issues
• 19 Gets attention of politicians
•  
• In the USA, referendums are seen as a process
  whereby ordinary citizens can to some degree
  control law making directly by their own votes
  rather than through the usual process of
  representative democracy.
• -it is therefore a supplement to representative
  democracy.

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• The initiative and referendum are different
  things in the USA.
• -Referendums are used to approve legislation or
  constitution changes led by politicians.
• -Initiatives allow people or groups to draft
  their own, and have it voted on in a referendum.

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• There are four main types of direct democracy
  used in the States.
• Constitutional Referendum -Delaware is the only
  State out of 50 not to use this.
• Statutory Referendum - 24 states use this system
  where a referendum is held on normal legislation
  and provided a set number of people petition for
  one. This is similar to the recall.
• Statutory Initiative - used in 22 states where a
  petition places a statute on the ballot without
  any action by the State Legislature.
• -another 7 use a system where petition puts the
  bill in front of the legislature for action
  within a standard time limit
• -if it rejects the measure or takes to long then
  the statute is placed on the voting card at the
  next election.
• The Constitutional Initiative - is used in very
  few states but allows for petition to be used to
  start constitutional change.

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• California
•  
• California has a very weak party system and the
  formal political structure is divided and
  diffuse. Voters increasingly call themselves
  independents and even candidates that are
  nominated by parties tend to develop a personal
  campaign and to some extent distance themselves
  from their party.
•  
• Complementing and contributing to this is the
  widespread use of direct democracy, in
  particular, the initiative. California stands
  alone of the large industrial and urban States in
  offering the constitutional amendment initiative
  and direct statutory initiative without recourse
  to the legislature or the governor.

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• For example, in 2005 Governor Arnie placed an
  initiative on the legislative election ballot
  that control over constituency boundaries be
  place in the hands of retired State Judges in
  order to combat gerrymandering a problem that is
  rife in California. This was defeated along with
  every other initiative placed on the ballot that
  year. Laws, amendments and regulations that find
  themselves on to the initiative range from the
  trivial to the very important. Like the
  regulation of chiropractors to that of nuclear
  power plants and a law on obscenity to tax
  regulations and the death penalty. It seams to
  cover any aspect of the political.

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• Direct Democracy in Switzerland
•  
• Between 1848 and 1993 Switzerland held 414
  referendums on nearly every aspect of political
  life.
• Between 6 and 12 referendums per year.
• The 1848 constitution set in place obligatory
  referendums for all constitutional amendments and
  enabled citizens to petition for a total
  rewriting of the document.

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• There are four types of Referendum at the federal
  level
• the constitutional referendum - government
  proposed amendments are submitted to a popular
  vote
• the constitutional initiative - publicly proposed
  votes on amendments
• the optional or facultative referendum on
  legislation - citizens can reject legislation
• the optional treaty referendum - international
  agreements need popular ratification

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• Federal Assembly - Legislature
•  
• Switzerland's Bicameral Parliament,
• the Council of States - 46 constituency seats
  from the Cantons
• the National Council - members are elected by
  popular vote on a basis of proportional
  representation to serve four-year terms)

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• Problems
•  
• The whole process can take a very long time,
  sometimes more than 9 months.
• As a result there are two things the government
  can do to speed up the process.
• - they can initiate urgent legislation -
  unconstitutional decrees

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• Kobach does describe three major problems with
  the system however
• - delay as a means of destroying a bill
• - citizens have no way of making straight forward
  bills
• - purchased democracy as with any kind of
  electoral campaign, resources play a major factor
  in determining outcomes.

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• Turnout and Referendums
•  
• Evidence shows that voter participation can vary
  much more widely in referendums than it does in
  elections.
• - in recent years the average turnout in many
  Swiss referendums has tended to be well below 50
  .
• - in US state referendums turnout is notoriously
  low and may be subject to even more extreme
  fluctuations.
• These fluctuations occur because occasionally
  there will arise an issue of much greater
  importance.
• - for example, referendum turnout in Ireland
  usually hangs around the 50-60 turnout level
  whereas the European entry vote had a turnout of
  71.

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• Butler and Ramney (1994) found that turnout over
  a large number of referendum cases in various
  nations averaged 15 lower than turnout for
  general elections in the same countries.
• Cronin (1989) found a clear drop off from the
  number of people who voted for a candidate and
  those that voted in an initiative when they were
  place on the same ballot in the USA.
• It is clear that if the vote is of sufficient
  importance to the electorate then they will
  turnout in greater numbers.

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• Advantages
•  
• - it increases the influence that the citizenry
  have over their own lives and
• - some argue that it makes them better-informed
  and more politically sophisticated
• - it also removes the need for self serving
  politicians and legitimises any laws passed.

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• Disadvantages 
• - Critics say that direct forms of democracy are
  too unwieldy in large populations and
• - They enable officials to pass the buck and
  therefore
• - They de-legitimate their roles as the
  representatives of the people who are charged
  with making decisions for us.
• - some people believe that the majority of
  members of the general public are not
  sufficiently wise to be making constant
  decisions, instead, this should be the role of
  elected officials who are.
• - the public are also extremely susceptible to
  campaigns which means that if someone has the
  money, especially in the case if the initiative,
  they may be able to pass legislation that they
  want which cant be good for democracy.