Referendums are one of the pillars of Swiss democracy. Due to them, citizens have the opportunity to directly express their opinion on particular issues of the political life. One of these ...referendums was held on September 27, 2020. The most discussed issue was the initiative «For proportionate immigration», put forward by the nationalist Swiss people’s party (SVP). It assumed the return of control over migration processes to the jurisdiction of Bern and, accordingly, the termination of one of the seven sectoral agreements between Switzerland and the European Union. The main political forces of the country (Christian Democrats, Social Democrats, Liberals, Greens), as well as trade unions and employers' associations did not support the proposal of the nationalists. They formed a Committee of resistance. In the end, the «For proportionate immigration» initiative received only 38,29% of electoral support and, consequently, was not adopted. The author comes to the conclusion that the main reason for the failure of the SVP initiative was the awareness of the Swiss that the break of one sectoral agreement with Brussels will lead to the denunciation of the entire package of agreements and, consequently, to a sharp decrease in the degree of interaction between Switzerland and the EU member-states. Thus, the referendum became a serious political defeat for the nationalists, and Switzerland retained its former level of relations with the EU.
The study of secession generally stresses the causal influence of cultural identities, political preferences, or ecological factors. Whereas these different views are often considered to be mutually ...exclusive, this paper proposes a two-stage model in which they are complementary. We posit that cultural identities matter for explaining secessionism, but not because of primordial attachments. Rather, religious and linguistic groups matter because their members are imbued with cultural legacies that lead to distinct political preferences – in this case preferences over welfare statism. Further, ecological constraints such as geography and topography affect social interaction with like-minded individuals. On the basis of both these political preferences and ecological constraints, individuals then make rational choices about the desirability of secession. Instrumental considerations are therefore crucial in explaining the decision to secede, but not in a conventional pocketbook manner. To examine this theory, we analyze the 2013 referendum on the secession of the Jura Bernois region from the Canton of Berne in Switzerland, using municipal level census and referendum data. The results lend support to the theory and suggest one way in which the politics of identity, based on factors like language and religion, can be fused with the politics of interest (preferences for more or less state intervention into the polity and economy) to better understand group behavior.
This paper uses nationally representative, longitudinal data to examine experiences and fear of ethnic and racial harassment in public spaces among minorities in the UK, comparing levels of both ...before and after the 2016 EU Referendum. We do not find an increase in the prevalence of ethnic and racial harassment, but we do find higher levels of fear of ethnic and racial harassment in the period after the Referendum. The increase in fear following the vote was concentrated among more privileged individuals: those with higher levels of education, and those living in less socioeconomically deprived areas with lower levels of previous right-wing party support. We conclude that the Referendum exacerbated already higher levels of perceived discrimination among higher educated minorities while reducing the buffering effect of residence in “safe areas.”
This Article looks back on the defeat of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to Parliament referendum held in October 2023 and considers a number of influences to help explain the failure ...of the referendum. The continuing disengagement or decline in voter participation in this referendum is of significant concern, especially in the Northern Territory. The stakes were high that this referendum campaign would not create a rift within the Australian community but would become a vehicle for greater understanding and relationship between Australia's Indigenous and nonIndigenous communities. This article highlights the approximately 1.8 million enrolled voters who failed to attend a polling booth at the Voice to Parliament referendum. Could these voters have made a difference in the outcome? If not, could augmenting the current referendum machinery with deliberative democratic processes provide the engagement tools needed to reverse this trend of declining participation?
This article reviews the arguments for and against the introduction of four-year, fixed terms for the Commonwealth Parliament. It was prompted by Prime Minister Albanese's comments this year that the ...Parliament's 'terms are too short with just three years'. The Commonwealth is the only Australian legislature without four year, fixed terms.
Can a just transition be achieved within the context of decolonisation in the south Oceania Island of New Caledonia, a suis generis overseas collectivity of the French Republic? Like its Pacific ...neighbours, New Caledonia is already feeling the catastrophic impact of climate change. Yet, its post-colonial future, like its past, is deeply linked to struggles over mining sovereignty. New Caledonia is the fourth largest producer of nickel in the world (US Geological Survey 2022), a mineral used historically to make stainless steel for the construction industry. However, with the sudden increase in demand for nickel for lithium-ion batteries in electric cars, New Caledonia is now at the forefront of the global energy transition. One of the country's three nickel refineries, Prony Resources, signed in 2021 its first multi-year agreement with Tesla to supply the electric car maker directly with nickel. As such, the island has been thrown deep into the contradictory global goal of achieving a low-carbon economy whilst extracting even larger quantities of energy transition minerals, with the potential to 'enlarge and intensify social and ecological injustice' (Bainton et al. 2021: 1).
Resident support is critical for the successful hosting of major sport events and is closely linked to event impact perceptions. This study investigated determinants of support for a major sport ...event. The key independent variables were perceived event-related personal impacts and perceived event-related community impacts.
Residents (n = 603) of two potential Commonwealth Games host cities in New Zealand were asked about their support for the event. Event impact perceptions (costs and benefits) across personal and community dimensions were measured. The triple bottom line approach complements social exchange theory and social representations theory to underpin this study. Multinomial logistic regression was used to analyse the relationship between impacts and event support. Ordinal logistic regression was used to analyse the relationship between the levels of the event impacts (i.e. personal and community) and event support. Paired sample t-tests were used to explore difference between personal and community quality of life perceptions based on each of the event impacts.
Overall, residents were supportive of bidding for the Commonwealth Games and various event impact perceptions are related. Based on Social Representations Theory, residents likely view the positive benefits of hosting a major event of this type as outweighing the negative. Several significant impacts emerged - both positive and negative. Positive impacts (pride) were perceived to have the greatest effect on event support, whereas each of the negative impact perceptions (opportunity cost, justice) were linked to decreased event support.
The results of this study provide important insights on community member perceptions of major sport events. The tendency of community members to focus on negatives could be counteracted with targeted communication strategies.
The author analyses New Zealand's recent usage of referendums. Three theoretical approaches are utilised to underpin this analysis, namely, AV Dicey's theory of referendums, Stephen Tierney's ...republican theory of constitutional referendums and Adam Tomkins' theory of political constitutionalism. Dicey's and Tierney's theories only support referendums for significant constitutional matters and not social policy referendums, like the End of Life Choice or cannabis referendums. Applying Tomkins' theory, the author argues that New Zealand's recent usage of referendums is inconsistent with understandings of the political constitution. Referendums fundamentally undermine the doctrine of ministerial responsibility, thereby undermining Parliament's role as the keeper of the Government. Furthermore, the leading theories of referendums do not provide an adequate justification for inconsistency with the political constitution. New Zealand's recent practice of relying upon social policy referendums to resolve contentious political issues is unprincipled and erodes New Zealand's delicate constitution. Finally, the author considers the relationship between Te Tiriti o Waitangi and referendums, and ultimately concludes that referendums unacceptably abrogate Te Tiriti and the recognition of tino rangatiratanga of Maori. The author concludes that, despite the compelling accounts in support of constitutional referendums, New Zealand's unique constitutional history suggest that they are rarely, if ever, appropriate.
Izravna demokracija Šalaj, Berto
Političke perspektive,
12/2022, Volume:
12, Issue:
2
Journal Article, Paper
Peer reviewed
Open access
Središnji je cilj rada ustanoviti u kojoj je mjeri i na koje načine koncept izravne demokracije bio tema znanstvenog i stručnog istraživačkog interesa u okviru hrvatske političke znanosti. Analiza je ...obuhvatila članke objavljene u politološkim znanstvenim i stručnim časopisima u razdoblju od 1990. do 2020. godine. Glavni je nalaz provedene analize da je izravna demokracija bila na marginama istraživačkih interesa hrvatske politologije. To je posebice vidljivo ukoliko se opseg tematiziranja izravne demokracije usporedi s tematiziranjem različitih institucija predstavničke demokracije. Hrvatska politologija primarno je fokusirana na model predstavničke demokracije, a tek sporadično se bavi izravnom demokracijom. Dodatno, provedena analiza pokazuje da hrvatski politolozi na izravnu demokraciju dominantno gledaju negativno, te su vrlo oprezni prema njenom eventualnom češćem korištenju u hrvatskoj politici.
The main goal of the paper is to establish to what extent and in what ways the concept of direct democracy was a topic of scientific and professional research interest within the Croatian political science. The analysis included articles published in scientific and professional political science journals in the period from 1990 to 2020. The main finding of the conducted analysis is that direct democracy was on the margins of the research interests of Croatian political science. This is particularly visible if the extent of the thematization of direct democracy is compared with the thematization of various institutions of representative democracy. Croatian political science is primarily focused on the model of representative democracy, and only sporadically deals with direct democracy. In addition, the analysis carried out shows that Croatian political scientists predominantly view direct democracy negatively and are very wary of its possible more frequent use in Croatian politics.
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