Over recent decades, many countries have gained experience with referendums, citizens’ forums, citizens’ juries, collaborative governance, participatory budgeting, and other models in which citizens ...have a more direct say. Citizen participation is usually considered a valuable element of democratic citizenship and democratic decision-making. Many theorists claim that citizen participation has positive effects on the quality of democracy. This article examines the probability of these claims for a large number of cases in different Western countries. Four types of democratic innovation are distinguished and evaluated according to the extent to which they realize positive effects on democracy. The findings show that citizen involvement has a number of positive effects on democracy: it increases issue knowledge, civic skills, and public engagement, and it contributes to the support for decisions among the participants. The analysis also makes it clear that the contribution of participation to democracy differs according to type of democratic innovations; deliberative forums and surveys appear to be better at promoting the exchange of arguments, whereas referendums and participatory policy making projects are better at giving citizens influence on policy making and involving more people. But, as I try to argue, since these positive effects are perceptible only to those taking part and the number of participants is often small or particular groups are underrepresented, the benefits to individual democratic citizenship are far more conclusive than the benefits to democracy as a whole.
Points for practitioners
This article distinguishes four types of democratic innovation and, for each type, examines the effects of citizen participation on the quality of democracy. It offers a systematic analysis of the contribution of participation to elements of democracy, such as influence on decision-making, inclusion, skills and virtues, deliberation, and legitimacy. The analysis points to a number of positive effects on democracy, but the findings also show that the contribution of participation to democracy differs according to the type of democratic innovations.
Referendums figure prominently in discussions about democracy and democratic innovation. Whereas much of the literature is focused on binary versions of the referendum, this article centralizes the ...non-binary or multi-option referendum, paying special attention to its modalities and the leverage they give to citizens in the ballot agenda-setting stage. Studying agenda-setting in multi-option referendums contributes to our understanding of civic democratic empowerment. For this purpose, we distil from practical experience the process steps and actors involved in triggering multi-option referendums and formulating ballot options. We map them in six main models of agenda-setting processes, three of which are legally institutionalized and triggered through bottom-up processes, allowing for competing proposals by citizens and legislators; three other models are characterized by top-down, ad hoc triggering and entail variation in the involvement of political parties, experts, societal groups and citizens in suggesting or selecting ballot options. Our procedural typology ultimately contributes to the body of research on referendum triggering and option formulation in the context of democratic innovation.
The Winner Takes It All Marien, Sofie; Kern, Anna
Political behavior,
12/2018, Letnik:
40, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Despite the strong theoretical expectations about the beneficial effect of direct democratic instruments on citizens’ political support, the empirical evidence is scarce and inconsistent. We add to ...this literature by studying the effect of the use of a direct democratic process on citizens’ political support and its underlying causal mechanism. Using a unique research design that combines a strong test of causality with a high level of ecological validity, we surveyed inhabitants of a Belgian neighborhood that held a local referendum and a comparison group (i.e. inhabitants of a comparable neighborhood without referendum) before and after the referendum (n = 1049). Using difference-in-differences analysis and first difference regression analysis, we show that in line with our expectations the increase in political support following the referendum is not driven by involvement or procedural fairness perceptions but by an increase in support levels among the winners of the decision. Moreover, despite the contested nature of the issue, losers’ level of political support did not decrease significantly after the result of the referendum was announced.
The role of social media at electoral events is much speculated upon. Wide-ranging effects, and often critical evaluations, are attributed to commentary, discussions, and advertising on Facebook, ...Twitter, Telegram, and many other platforms. But the specific effects of these social media during campaigns, especially referendum campaigns, remain under-studied. This thematic issue is a very valuable contribution for precisely this reason. Using the 2018 abortion referendum in Ireland as an illustrative case, this commentary argues for greater research on social media at referendum campaigns, more critical evaluation of the claims and counterclaims about social media effects, often aired widely without substantive evidence, and, finally, for robust, coordinated cross-national regulation of all digital platforms in line with global democratic norms.
Much like Brexit, the Greek bailout referendum of 2015 could have been a watershed event that significantly affected the European Economic and Monetary Union and possibly the European Union as a ...whole. While the referendum did not live up to the hype, the fact remains that the Greek people decided to risk ‘exit’ and reject their international creditors’ bailout terms. In this article, we explore how the cycle of sovereign debt crisis, the externally imposed austerity and the resulting recession affected the outcome of that referendum. We further provide a limited test for the ‘left-behind’ hypothesis, which has been a prominent explanation for recent ‘unexpected’ or ‘surprising’ choices that have been made at the polls. Using municipality data and novel data sources, such as night-time light transmission, we provide aggregate-level support for our expectations.
The paper analyses the bacis characteristics of the fundamental and the most applicable form of direct democracy – referendum, and the basic characteristics of the existing constitutional framework ...of referendum in the Republic of Croatia. According to the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia there is one case of a mandatory referendum (entering into alliances with other states or of dissolution thereof), and in other cases referendum is facultative. Having in mind the previous practice of referendum in Croatia, the special emphasis in the paper is on the special form of referendum which is introduced in Croatian legal framework with the Revision of the Constitution in 2000. The introduction of the citizen-initiated referendum in a solution that is according to conditions of its application unknown to developed democracies has shown that one institute that can and should have a positive impact on the development od democray and of democratic political culture can simultaneously jeopardize the foundations of modern democracy. In this context, the aim of this paper is to point to the shortcomings of the constitutional framework of referendum in Croatia, and to propose some solutions that will minimize possibility of abusing of direct democractic decision-making.
U radu se analiziraju osnovna obilježja temeljnog i najviše primjenjivanog oblika neposredne (izravne) demokracije – referenduma, te osnovna obilježja postojećeg ustavnopravnog okvira referenduma u Republici Hrvatskoj. Odlučivanje birača na referendumu Ustavom Republike Hrvatske u nekim je bitnim pitanjima regulirano kao obvezatno (udruživanje i razdruživanje), dok je u drugima regulirano kao fakultativno. S obzirom na dosadašnju praksu referenduma u Hrvatskoj, poseban naglasak u radu stavljamo na poseban oblik referenduma koji je u hrvatski pravni poredak uveden Promjenom Ustava iz 2000. godine. Upravo je uvođenje referenduma narodne inicijative u obliku rješenja koje je po širini područja i po uvjetima primjene nepoznato razvijenim demokracijama pokazalo kako jedan institut koji može i treba imati pozitivan utjecaj na razvoj demokracije i demokratske političke kulture istovremeno može ugroziti temelje suvremene demokracije. Upravo zato, cilj je ovoga rada ukazati na nedorečenosti i manjkavosti ustavnopravnog okvira referenduma u Hrvatskoj, te predložiti neka rješenja koja će eventualne mogućnosti manipuliranja u bilo kojem smislu svesti na najmanju moguću mjeru.
Drawing on multisited qualitative research in Italy and the UK, this paper documents the dark side of onward migration and the experiences faced by Italian‐Bangladeshis in the UK after the Brexit ...referendum. The findings show that compared to their position in Italy, Italian‐Bangladeshis experienced a downgrading in symbolic, identity‐related, and, specifically, socio‐economic and cultural aspects in the UK society. The paper also uncovers the potential strategies that Italian‐Bangladeshis intend to adopt in case they lose the special rights provided to them by EU citizenship after Brexit. Since the majority of them have moved to the United Kingdom to build a future for their children, they find themselves forced to further reconfigure their strategies and reactivate different degrees of mobility in order to avoid the loss of social rights (access to welfare, the status of citizens) and material resources (housing and better working conditions) that they have long assumed.
The article develops a two-dimensional typology of political reasons for governments to pledge referendums on European integration when they are not obliged to do so: the first dimension is about the ...political level at which the strategic use of referendum pledges is targeted and it distinguishes between domestic and European reasons; the second dimension attends to the strategic mode of governments when pledging EU referendums which can either be about avoiding political losses (the defensive mode) or about realizing political gains (the offensive mode). In combination, the typology yields four ideal types of reasons for governments to commit to EU referendums: the depoliticizing; plebiscitary; red-line; and internationalist EU referendum pledges. In the empirical analysis, the article applies this typology to classify 28 cases of discretionary government commitments to EU referendums and it presents the findings of an expert survey that has been conducted for this purpose.
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