Models of national referenda in Hungary - an overview starting from the change of political regime to the present day

Csaba Erdős

doi:10.25142/cep.2018.013

Abstract

Models of national referenda in Hungary - an overview starting from the change of political regime to the present day

Highlights

Finding the balance between the different forms of democracy is a key issue in all modern, democratic states
The paper tries to determine the beneficiaries of the different models – for example the political elite, emerging political groups, or voters as non-professional partakers of politics
The paper relies on the methodology of the science of constitutional law and it applies temporal comparison: it gives an overview of the changes in the regulation of national referenda in Hungary since the change of political regime

Summary

Introduction

Finding the balance between the different forms of democracy is a key issue in all modern, democratic states. There is no general, ideal solution in the balance between representative and direct democracy that could be applied to all countries This diversity in the role and forms of direct democracy may be described and examined from a territorial and temporal perspective. The paper tries to determine the beneficiaries of the different models – for example the political elite (governmental or opposition parties), emerging political groups, or voters as non-professional (occasional) partakers of politics. For this purpose, the paper relies on the methodology of the science of constitutional law: primarily, the examination and interpretation of legal sources – constitutions, statutes and decisions. I will focus on the changes of issues, which affect the role of national referenda: the personal scope of rules governing the submission of referendum initiatives (who?), issues on which holding a referendum is compulsory, admissible and excluded topics (about what?), result (is there a minimal turnout?), effect of the referendum (is the result of the referendum binding?).

On the main points of referendum-regulation see also

33 Hereinafter

Result

Findings

Conclusion