Demands for public input on Olympic bids have made local referenda an increasingly common feature of the Olympic bid process. This case study advances our knowledge about the factors that lead local ...residents to support or oppose an Olympic bid by presenting the results of a representative
survey of local residents at the time of an Olympic bid plebiscite in Calgary, Canada. Building on past research, five correlates of Olympic bid voting behavior are identified: sociodemographic characteristics, local civic identity, political partisanship, attitudes towards government spending,
and local political leadership. While all five factors are related to support or opposition to the Olympic bid, civic identity and fiscal conservativism were particularly powerful predictors of preferences. The data suggest that pro-Olympic and anti-Olympic coalitions have an unusual character
that challenge those involved in Olympic advocacy.
Gay Rights at the Ballot Box examines how the tactics of LGBT activists have evolved, unraveling the complex relationship between ballot measure campaigns and the broader goals of the LGBT movement. ...Amy L. Stone draws on archival research and interviews with LGBT activists to provide a detailed account of the campaigns to stop such ballot measures from passing into law.
The current trend in the development of public and municipal administration in foreign countries is an increase in political inclusion. The article is aimed at analyzing the referendum as an ...institution of political participation on the example of Switzerland, where on average over 10 national referendums are held annually - more than in all other European countries combined. Referendums are also organized at the level of Swiss cantons and municipalities. The study is based on the analysis of the organizational and legal framework of their implementation. The theoretical basis of the research is made up of relevant works of domestic and foreign authors researching the Swiss experience in a pan-European context. The empirical basis is the legal acts of Switzerland and data on referendums provided by the Federal Chancellery. The article pays special attention to the situation with plebiscites in the Swiss cantons: the available types of voting and the peculiarities of their implementation are compared. The author analyzes some high-profile referendums, for example, on the issue of migration and the ban on the construction of minarets. It is concluded that the referendum is not an inherently valuable institution of political participation, but it contributes to the formation of a certain electoral culture. The main features of this culture are immunity to populism, high interest in politics, and a serious attitude to the political decision-making process. In the final part of the article, it is emphasized that the Swiss experience is autochthonous, so its direct copying seems impossible. However, the general principles laid down in the Swiss referendums can be applied in other countries.
The paper analyzes the possibilities of referenda in consociational democracies. According to Arend Lijphart, democratic systems can be divided into majoritarian and consociational. Referendum is ...commonly understood as a mechanism of the people's direct decision-making based on the majoritarian principle. This paper analyzes what qualities the referendum must possess in order to be compatible with the system of consociational democracy. The term consociational democracy applies to systems in which the society is divided on multiple grounds, in such a way that the majority of interests are satisfied while preserving the institutional shape and logic of this mechanism of direct decision-making. The analysis includes the consideration of all issues of relevance to the divided societies, in the theoretical and practical sense.
Consultative referendums may provide crucial information about public opinion but have received little attention in the literature compared with their binding counterparts. In this article, we ...analyse 221 Norwegian local consultative referendums on municipal amalgamation using the Venice Commission’s code on referendums. Much of the referendum literature suggests that consultative referendums are in fact binding. The municipal councils followed the outcomes of the referendums in most cases, but 14% chose to go against it. While the overall impression is that the outcomes of consultative referendums are seen as binding, the data indicate that ballot design may affect voters’ choice as well as council decisions. Although many democratic standards were met, the wording of questions and alternatives on the ballot paper were problematic in a number of cases – reducing the democratic value of the citizens’ advice.
This article addresses a critical gap in the literature on winner–loser effects that consists of the lack of attention for highly contentious constitutional referenda. It uses unique multi-wave panel ...data of over 13,000 people that is unrivalled in size and richness. We estimate causal effects of the referendum on rarely studied but crucial public perceptions of the fairness of the way a referendum is conducted. These perceptions pertain to the highly contentious 2016 European Union (Brexit) referendum in the United Kingdom, which is an ideal-type example of a wider class of referenda for which similar outcomes can be expected. We use difference-in-differences methods and find winner–loser effects of a magnitude far greater than ever observed for general elections. Moreover, we find that these effects not only persist, but even grow over time. The findings have profound implications for the use of such referenda.
This study examined the interplay of anti‐immigrant prejudice and intergroup contact experience on voting intentions within Britain's 2016 referendum on its membership in the European Union. In the ...days before the referendum, we asked more than 400 British people how they planned to vote. We measured a number of demographic factors expected to predict voting intentions as well as individuals’ prejudice towards and intergroup contact experience (positive and negative) with EU immigrants. Anti‐immigrant prejudice was a strong correlate of support for Brexit. Negative intergroup contact experience was associated with higher anti‐immigrant prejudice and, in turn, increased support for ‘Leave’. Positive intergroup contact, on the other hand, seemed to play a reparative role, predicting lower prejudice and increasing support for ‘Remain’.
On 21 January 2023, Slovak voters had the opportunity to use their constitutional right to vote in a referendum on a constitutional amendment on early elections. The referendum was, however, invalid, ...because a valid referendum in Slovakia requires a turnout of at least half of all eligible voters. The referendum took place less than six weeks after the no-confidence vote to the Slovak executive by the Slovak parliament. This development prompted steps towards amending the Constitution so that early elections become constitutionally permissible.
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