Pros and Cons of Referendums and Democratic Theory

Abstract

The popularity of the referendum device never completely fades and periodically captures the political fortunes of a state. It has been used by both reforming and conservative forces as well as leaders who wished to direct a political outcome in the guise of democracy. The referendum device is one of the institutions of direct democracy that claim to measure and express the will of the people better than the institutions of representative democracy. Executives and legislatures, in their bid to out do the other, have utilized the referendum to secure their political goals. Moreover in most of these cases it has been at the impetus of an elite or elites that referendums have been called. And most often, executives—presidents, prime ministers, and dictators of various names—have suggested and called these votes. They have been particularly popular among authoritarian or authoritarian-minded leaders because of their susceptibility to abuse. Leaders can manipulate a referendum if they have the opportunity to decide whether or not the vote is called, its subject, its wording, the timing of the vote, and the chance to interpret the results. Thus the ultimate vox populi becomes the vox caesaris.