Hungary

Abstract

Since the introduction of direct-democratic instruments, over 2000 referendums have been initiated in Hungary by citizens and institutions. However, less than 10 per cent of the initiatives have been able to survive the admissibility procedures of the election commission and the supreme court. An elaborate system of substantive and formal limits is imposed on direct-democratic instruments which is coupled with a rigorous authorization procedure. The Fundamental Law explicitly prohibits referendums in ten subject matters, while the Referendum Act adds the formal limit of clarity, which is the most common ground for refusing the validation of referendum requests. In addition, the state institutions authorizing referendums tend to apply a heightened scrutiny of the legal limits, which nips almost all initiatives in the bud, even though the validation of more questions would not necessarily lead to more referendums, let alone to more successful referendums.