Referendums

By Jonathan Sankey

• 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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.”

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:

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The ElectorateAustralians 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”

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

• 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

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)

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

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.

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%.

• 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.

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.

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.