Development and trends of the general referendum law proposals in the Czech Republic

Abstract

The possibilities of introducing elements of direct democracy into the Czech constitutional framework are often being reduced to efforts to implement a general referendum. During more than 25 years of the existence of an independent Czech Republic, the Czech Parliament discussed 21 proposals of the general referendum law. However, despite the relatively large number of the proposals, the Czech legislators did not agree on the form which the general referendum should have in the Czech Republic - none of the submitted proposals of the law on the general referendum has so far been accepted. Proposals of the general referendum law were not identical. Therefore, this paper aims to analyse 21 proposals submitted to the Czech Parliament. The main emphasis will be put on the overall role which a general referendum should fulfil in case it is implemented into the Czech legal framework. Should a general referendum serve only as a complementary instrument in the context of parliamentary democracy applied in the Czech Republic or should it be used as a regular tool to exercise power by citizens of the Czech Republic which corresponds much more to the system based on direct democracy? Which of these poles are the proposals approaching, or is it possible to observe a certain trend in the submitted proposals of the general referendum laws? Are the proposals, that are repeatedly submitted by the same political parties consistent in their content? Those are the main issues, which will be addressed in this paper.