By M. Mendelsohn, A. Parkin
Because the referendum turns into a extra average portion of selection making, it leaves few, if any, associations, approaches and values of democracy untouched. Political actors of all types - together with political events and curiosity teams - search to take advantage of the referendum equipment to additional their very own pursuits. the result is a distinct type of democracy than existed ahead of. This e-book lays out the comparative study schedule at the impression of referendums at the perform of liberal democracy.
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Additional resources for Referendum Democracy: Citizens, Elites and Deliberation in Referendum Campaigns
Sample text
Put another way, is the apparent rise of direct democracy truly a democratic phenomenon? And if it is, does heightened popular demand reflect a positive response to the perceived competence and judgment of electorates, or a negative assessment of the fitness or integrity of elected leaders? Explanations In US politics, public support for direct democracy is often seen as an extension of that nation’s ‘populist’ heritage. As described by Daniel A. Smith (Smith, 1998, p. 7 Yet either way, it presumably involves high levels of support among citizens for both the general principles and the specific instruments of direct democracy.
1990; Craig, 1993). Although our survey included one question that tapped incumbent-based external efficacy, we suspect that the regime-based measure (an index reflecting respondents’ beliefs about the responsiveness of the system as a whole) will have a greater impact. Before going further, we want to acknowledge that the research presented here is limited in three ways. 21 Second, the data are cross-sectional rather than longitudinal in nature, and therefore cannot tell us everything that we would like to know about whether cognitive mobilization (by definition, a process that takes place over time) or the loss of public trust in government are responsible for increased popular support for direct democracy.
The use of the indirect as opposed to the direct initiative in some US states has allowed legislatures to be more fully involved in the process, permitting them to offer amendments to propositions before they become law, promoting more dialogue between groups and institutions. This is not unlike the way the Italian system responds to the referendum abrogativo. Unlike the contention of Bogdanor (1994) that Italy’s form of referendum is no more than a veto on government policy, it de facto allows outsiders to initiate policy by placing issues on the agenda and encouraging parliament to respond in ways consistent with the spirit of the initiative.
