direct democracy and referendums

representative democracy v direct democracy

models of democracy

representative democracy

• citizens elect representatives to represent their interest and making decision on their behalf

• different conceptions of representativeness → descriptive v substantive representation

direct democracy

• citizen directly control decision making of the politics

• its purest form most prominently practiced in ancient Greece

  • assembly for all citizens

  • randomly drawn citizens put in charge of the administration and judiciary

• impractical in larger politics, where meeting is difficult and policies issues are more complex

modern example of direct democracy

• 2 Cantons of Switzerland, Appenzell Innerrhoden and Glarus, still practice this form of direct democracy

• every citizen of the canton can participate in deliberation and voting

• retain substantive legislative power

forms of direct democracy

1. right to recall elected officials

recall of MPs Act (2015) as way to give power to voters over MPs between elections. this was one consequence of the expenses scandal and introduced another instrument of direct democracy

recall petition is triggered if one of the following conditions is met:

• an MP is convicted in the UK of an offence and receives custodial sentence of 12 months or less

• the commons suspends the MP for at least 10 days

• an MP is convicted under the Parliamentary Standards Act 2009 (expenses)

if 10% of eligible constituents sign a petition, a by-election is triggered (unseated MP will eligible to stand) so far, 6 petitions have been made under the act; 4 of these had received sufficient signatures to trigger a by-election

1. E-petitions

• in recent years, some democracies began to use e-petition to engage with citizens

• example → we are the people website launched by the Obama administration in 2011

  • the white house will official respond to any petition that gather more than 100,000 signatures within 30 days

• similar e-petition system was also setup for the UK Parliament in 2011

impact of e-petition on MPs’ behaviour

• relative signature rate at constituency level affect MPs tendency to attend the relevant debate and speak in support of the petition

• the effect is condition upon electoral competitiveness, MPs from marginal seats are more responsive to constituents’ signature

• e-petition enhance MPs responsiveness and representativeness

1. citizen convention/assemblies

examples and evidence

• British Columbia Citizens’ Assembly on the electoral system, 2003-4 → quality of debates have been high, particularly when spread over many months

• Ontario Citizens’ Assembly on the electoral system, 2006-7 → are the people who agree to take representative of the population?

• Netherlands Citizens’ Forum on the electoral system, 2006 →

• Icelandic Constitutional Council, 2010-11 → evidence of positive effect on debates beyond the convention itself is very limited

• French ‘Citizens Convention for Climate’ held in 2019 and 2020 → can they be employed frequently or just better for constitutional reform issues?

1. referendum

different types of referendums

5 dimensions (Uleri, 1994/96):

1. prescribed rules vs discretion of actor

• can policy-makers alone decide or are there fixed rules on when a referendum is called?

• example of prescribed rules → Denmark requires a referendum in case the country would lose sovereignty to EU (or other international organisations (Grundloven §20) if not 150 of 179 MPs have supported the respective amendment

• example of discretion of actor → David Cameron could call a referendum on Brexit at his own discretion

1. mandatory vs optional

• mandatory → Irish referendum to ratify the Treaty of Nice in Ireland in 2001 and 2002 (no then yes), mandated by the Irish constitution

• optional → Sweden had debate on introduction of prohibition and held a non-binding referendum on prohibition on alcohol in 1922 (rejected)

1. citizen vs political institution initiative

• are referendum held at request of number of voters (citizen’s initiative) or a political institution

• request of political institution

  • Australia → any proposed constitutional change in parliament requires a referendum where amendment gets majority

• citizen initiative

  • Switzerland → 100,000 signatures required to propose a constitutional change or motion, if reached, referendum on proposed constitutional change or motion (50,000 for abrogative referendum)

• core issues for dimension 1-3: who is the agenda-setter in referendum?

1. rejective vs abrogative

for those countries where referendums on (some) bills/laws are prescribed for mandated, the requirement could be:

• rejective → referendum are required to be held before implementation

• abrogative → referendum are required when objection to the new law is arise among citizens

1. binding vs advisory

whether the government is, obliged by constitution or statute, respect the result of referendum and put it into practice

• binding → change of constitution in various countries requires typically a referendum which is also binding

• advisory → non-binding: return of Leopold III to the throne in Belgium (yes) or the vote on use of AV in UK Westminster elections (no) had no legal obligations for governments

example of non-binding referendum (where politicians did not listen)

• Sweden had left-hand traffic as the UK for decades, but policy-makers wanted to introduce right-hand traffic as in all neighbouring countries

• non-binding referendum hold on 16 October 1955

• 82.9% in favour of status quo

• in 1963, the Swedish parliament decided to shift to right-hand traffic without consulting the public again

• however, such renegation from democratic government over advisory referendums are rather rare

• Setälä (2006) question if this is a meaningful distinction between referendums

possible 6th dimension:

1. hurdle of passage

double majority & turnout requirement

• to address concerns that referendums might exclude minorities, might be hijacked and to foster general legitimacy, some democracies apply double majority of turnout requirement:

• Switzerland: a majority for a bill, law or motion in a referendum requires:

  • a majority among the voters who casted a valid vote (Volksmehr, ‘popular majority’)

    • a majority of cantons voting in favour (Ständemehr, ‘Majority of Estates’), rationale: rule out that large, populous cantons can outvote the smaller, less populous cantons

• Taiwan → passage of referendum require a majority of vote casted in favour which is no less than 25% of register voter

referendums in practice: the case of Switzerland and UK

Switzerland

• “all very important decisions by the people, important decisions by the parliament, other decisions by the government” (Linder, 2010)

• 100,000 signatures in 18 months results in plebiscite 2-3 years later (cannot infringe on core human rights)

Swiss experience: attitudes elites vs masses

differences in policy positions between people and parliament (Hermann & Leuthold, 2007):

• open foreign policy: -22

• economic liberalisation: -19

• environmental protection: -10

• social liberalisation: - 9

• strong welfare state: -2

• tax reduction: +3

• stronger army and police: +11

• restrictive immigration: +28

negative values → population more left-wing than parliament

positive values → population more right-wing than parliament

electorate considerably more conservative and protectionist than MPs, so referenda bring policies closer to people’s preferences

example of abrogative referendum enforced by citizens’ initative

• the Swiss upper and lower house passed the Energy Strategy 2050 on September 30th 2016. the Energy Strategy is a comprehensive bundle of measures to reduce the country’s CO-2 emissions, to extend the use of renewable energies, to decrease the dependence on energy imports and to phase out nuclear power

• given its consequences for various industries, branches and citizens, the “Alliance Energie’ was founded and began to collect signatures for an abrogative referendum that would - if successful - revoke the Energy Strategy 2050

• the initiative collected enough signatures so that a referendum on the Energy Strategy 2050 was scheduled for May 21st 2017

• the referendum from May 21st 2017 yielded 58.2% for yes (in favour of the Energy Strategy 2050) which meant that the opponents could not gather a majority against it

• as such a referendum is binding in Switzerland, the Energy Strategy 2050 was finally implemented after the referendum yielded a majority for its supporters

• a good example of how direct democracy can increase the legitimacy of decisions made in parliament for a law with extensive effects for citizens and businesses

• are referendums leading to indecisiveness and potential policy gridlock?

controversial results for citizen initiatives?

• immigration restriction to 2% of population in 2014

• banned the construction of new minarets in 2009

• against female suffrage in 1959

• should issues related to individual freedom and rights be decided by the majority in a referendum in the first place?

who support increase use of referendum? and why?

increasing support for use of referendum

in 2021, Electoral Calculus asked a representative sample of Britons: “do you think Britain should hold referendums more often or less often to decide important matters?”

• at least a third wants more referendums in UK

• similar patterns of supporting among citizens of other democracies for more elements of direct democracy

• increasing support in recent decades

public opinion and direct democracy Dalton et al (2001)

how can we explain the increase popularity of referendum and other forms of direct democracy among the electorates?

2 explanations, with different implications to the impact of direct democracy”

1. new politics

• increase affluence and level of education among democracies

• people felt empowered to take control of political matters

• rise of “post-materialism’ (Inglehart 1977)

• demand for direct democracy as a means for more political expression

• evidence → demand for direct democracy mostly comes from niche parties that associate with ‘post-materialism’ i.e. Green Party in Germany

1. political dissatisfaction

• support for direct democracy comes from dissatisfaction with representative democracy

• unrepresentative and unresponsive democratic institution

• ‘Cartel’ of parties that controlled the government

evidence

• those at the extreme ends of political spectrum are more supportive of direct democracy and referendums

• a way for their voice to be heard

• contrary to ‘new politics’ explanation, education level negatively correlate with support for more use of referendums

decline in support for democracy

• European and World Values Surveys, combined data from Waves 5 and 6 (2005-7 and 2010-14). percentage of respondents rating it “essential” (a rating of 10 on a 10-point scale) to “live in a country that is governed democratically”

is referendum complementary or undermining representative democracy?

several considerations regarding the merit of referendums - Lupia and Matsusaka (2004)

1. are average voters competent?

• politicians may be better informed about the issues than an average voter > referendums may lead to worse policy outcome

• do voters have access to good information/advice that facilitate decision making?

• referendum campaign may enhance knowledge, participation and efficacy

1. what role does money play?

• do referendums favour those with deep pocket?

• collective citizen signature/referendum campaign could be expensive

1. how does referendums affect policy?

• does the presence of referendum lead to a different policy outcome? (either through referendum of affecting behaviour of elected politicians)

• does it favour specific type of outcome? (conservative v liberal)

• are policy outcome necessary better? do voter support incoherent/incompatible policy in separate votes?

1. does referendums benefit the many or the few?

• are referendums empowering special interest at the expense of public interest in comparison to the usual legislative procedure?

responsibility and accountability in referendums - Setälä (2006)

reality → referendums run in parallel with representative democracy

• are referendums complementary or undermining representative democracy?

• some forms of referendums undermine accountability in representative democracy

government initiated referendum can be used to avoid accountability by referring controversial decisions to the electorate

• i.e. Cameron calling the Brexit Referendum to maintain party cohesion within the conservatives, Corbyn endorsing a 2nd referendum to avoid taking a clear position on Brexit

Ex Ante (before parliamentary deliberation) referendum undermine MPs role as trustee and stifle parliamentary deliberation and scrutiny

• i.e. should remain-supporting MPs continue to articulate their opposition to Brexit in parliament after the referendum?

• some forms of referendum can enhance representative democracy

• decision controlling referendum (those called by opposition to a particular policy) encourage governments in democracies to be more consensual in their decision making

• ex post (after parliamentary deliberation) nature of decision controlling referendum also encourage more thorough deliberation and scrutiny in parliaments

  • enable a 2 stage deliberation process → parliamentary deliberation > deliberation in referendum campaign

• the purpose of referendum is not only to hold them, but as a mean to induce more thoughtful deliberation and decision making among politicians

conclusion - some pros and control of referendums

pros

• legitimates key policies that demand popular endorsement

• greater accountability (depends)

• allow citizen input outside of electoral cycles and greater involvement

• encourage elected officials to be more responsive

• increases interest, informed citizenry and engagement

• complements representative democracy

cons

• elected policy-makers are better informed

• increases the opportunities to exclude minorities

• some forms of referendum weakens accountability of representatives

• overly reductionist, creates (false) dichotomies and polarisation

• reduced turnout for parliamentary elections (cf. Switzerland) = voter fatigue