Home

Miro Haček, Miro.Hacek@fdv.uni-lj.si (Slovenian Political Science Association)

Title: Referendum - A Weapon in the Power Struggle or an Instrument of Renewal of Political Representation?

Referendum with voters directly expressing their view on a public matter of importance is the original form of democratic decision making. Considering the size of modern political communities it nowadays represents a mere complement to the political representation when key issues such as secession of a nation, international integration processes, constitutional amendments or impeachment of the President are at stake. In the European Union for example citizens of Candidate States vote on accession, while some Member States organize a referendum on adoption of each EU Treaty. An outstanding general exception regarding referenda is Switzerland where specific political tradition and cantonal organization of the state have so far resulted in over 400 referenda. In the US not even fifty of them have been organized so far. On the other hand, Italians have more than one referendum a year and newly independent Slovenia comes third very close to Italy’s average. In the great majority of consolidated democracies only a few referenda have taken place. In the Netherlands, they are not even legal. 

Leaving to the people to decide on more or less important matters may inspire doubt in ability and credibility of elected representatives of power. Also, referenda more often than not become a popular vote of (no) confidence in the Government, all the more when the referendum question is complex. Binding referenda represent a threat of the »tyranny of the majority« in J. Madison's terms as a limited number of voters may decide on an issue regulating existence of a minority group. According to C. Patten, referenda may give politicians a welcome alibi to avoid public debate on referendum issues, while repeating referenda on the same question with decreasing turnout may further undermine the democratic dimension of this institute  (such as the Irish »neverendum« on the Treaty of Nice). In spite of being more cost-effective, a referendum consisting of several different issues to be voted on often makes voters struggle with the so called »separability issue«. While in the majority of states a referendum can only be decided upon by the (absolute) majority of Members of the Parliament, the President of the State or the Constitutional Court, Slovenia represents a special case in this respect as a referendum can take place upon demand of only one third of the Members of the Parliament (or alternatively, 40 000 citizen petitions). In such unbearable lightness of referendum demands this institute is easily perverted into leverage for blackmail or even blockade of the Government.

This panel is going to review the present status of the institute of referendum and explore the use of referendum within representative democratic system on a wide specter from a necessary complement to a threat (as demonstrated by historic cases), with a special emphasis on interpretation and application of referendum in »new« democracies of Central and Eastern Europe in the last two decades. The panel attendees are going to look for answers to questions such as: How is the institute of referendum related to populism, political propaganda, and democratic deficit? How can referendum be used to amend the general crisis of representative democracy? Can (inadequate) citizen representation at the EU level be improved by referenda? What circumstances and organizational forms of referendum may stimulate political institutions to greater transparency and efficiency as well as motivate the citizens to become more politically active? When properly contextualized, the recent positive and negative experience of Central and Eastern European democracies in this respect may also be of value to emerging democracies in Northern Africa and the Middle East.