Local Referenda Research Articles

A Case Study of Local Referendum System Focusing on Local Referendum in Pyungun myun

A Case Study of Local Referendum System Focusing on Local Referendum in Pyungun myun

The Procedural Justice of National Projects and Local Referendum: Focused on the Case of Samcheok Nuclear Power Station

The Procedural Justice of National Projects and Local Referendum: Focused on the Case of Samcheok Nuclear Power Station

Representation and Democracy: Voice of Citizens. A Local Government Perspective

Traditional representative models of democracy are ill-suited to the new decision-making systems which are spreading in English local government—particularly the emerging ‘devolution deals’ between local authorities and the UK Government (Whitehall). Rather than assuming that the public are not interested in an agenda that can be seen as dry and esoteric, or that complex issues around devolution and policy development can be resolved through a yes/no vote in a local referendum, local policy-makers need to think more creatively about how they use overview and scrutiny, and deliberative methods, to give voice to the aspirations of local people.

Keep Stanton Free

This is a story that can at last be told – a local issue that became a national one. It is a story of a principle that became a civic right, one man's relentless opposition to the North Sydney library service (known as Stanton Library), political manoeuvres, a local government election and referendum and the efforts, sometimes open, sometimes covert, of a group of committed citizens and librarians to ensure that public libraries remained free. The committee formed to achieve this was set up in 1983, but the story begins long before that in 1935 with the Munn-Pitt report. This paper is based on a presentation given at the 11th Library History Forum held at the State Library of New South Wales on 18 and 19 November, 2014.

Dichotoom in dialoog? Lokale referenda in Nederland

This article is about local referenda in the Netherlands. Based on extensive empirical research the authors make clear how the local referendum in the Dutch democracy has developed not only in time and practice, but also how we can interpret the referendum theoretically. They show how in scientific literature, but also in practice, they are still looking for the meaning of the local referendum for Dutch local democracy. The authors also show that the practice of Dutch local referenda is searching, varied and in continuous development. Since 1906 193 local referenda are organized in the Netherlands. By far most referenda took place after the nineties of the last century. Local referenda are a local democratic ‘domain’, that will be explored in the Netherlands in the coming years. Last year a lot of attention has been given to the (local) referendum in the domain of legislation. The process of legislation has not been finished yet. The authors believe this offers an unique opportunity to share the available knowledge and experience about referenda and debate the adequate filling in and anchoring of the (local) referendum. This is a task for scientists, administrators and politicians alike.

Citizen participation or representative government – Building legitimacy for the Gothenburg congestion tax

A key dilemma in transport planning involves how to make possible the radical changes needed for long-term sustainability while ensuring political legitimacy and democratic process. Congestion charges are a case in point; despite their being considered an effective policy measure for improving environmental and health problems in cities, it has proved difficult to secure public acceptance for them. This paper analyses the policy process behind the introduction of a congestion tax in the Swedish city of Gothenburg, focusing on strategies for building legitimacy for the tax. The results show that the tax was legitimated primarily through its broad support in the City Council, which had been secured by integrating the tax with infrastructure investments, while strategies for directly involving the citizens in the process, such as public consultation and local referendums, were neglected or actively opposed. The process successfully generated a capacity for decisive political action legitimated through representative government. Over time the decision may gain public acceptance, but the process used might also prove detrimental to the future of the congestion tax and undermine trust in the democratic institutions.

Efektywność partycypacyjnych instrumentów zarządzania miastem

Celem artykułu jest identyfikacja instrumentów partycypacyjnych w zarządzaniu miastem. Na tym tle dokonano szczegółowszej analizy referendum lokalnego w sprawie odwołania organów samorządowych, ich podstaw prawnych, przesłanek, dynamiki i wyników.Partycypacja społeczna zaspokaja potrzeby samorealizacji, przynależności do grupy i uznania. Efektywność zarządzania miastem jako organizacji publicznej rozpatrywana musi być w wymiarze ekonomicznym i społecznym. Wymiar ekonomiczny dotyczy mierzalnych nakładów i mierzalnych efektów. Natomiast wymiar społeczny dotyczy szerszego zakresu oddziaływania nakładów na otoczenie, np.: efekty ekologiczne, edukacyjne, zdrowotne, więzi społecznych.

Local Referendums; As a Tool for Promoting Democracy and Respect for Human Rights in Albania

Local Referendums; As a Tool for Promoting Democracy and Respect for Human Rights in Albania

Current issues of improvement of the organization and conducting local referendums in Ukraine

The article discusses the modern understanding and maintenance of concept «local referendum», his value for society, some actual aspects of organization and leadthrough of local referendums in Ukraine, the legislative ways of decision of existent problems are offered.

The directly-elected mayor in the German Länder—introduction, implementation and impact

In the early 1990s, all German Länder (states) introduced direct election of executive mayors, along with the procedures to recall a sitting mayor by local referendum. This paper looks at the context and causes of this major institutional change and its impact on local politics. Although the directly-elected executive mayor has risen to a dominant position, effective institutional and political checks and balances are in place to prevent misuse of power. Finally, the German reforms are compared with other European countries.

Elected Mayors: Leading Locally?

The directly elected executive mayor was introduced to England a decade ago. Drawing inspiration from European and American experience, the elected mayor appealed to both New Labour and Conservative commentators in offering a solution to perceived problems of local leadership. There was a shared view that governance of local areas was failing and that elected mayors were the answer. The first local referendums were held in 2001. Most have continued to reject the idea of the elected mayor. During 2012, the coalition government initiated 10 further mayoral referendums in England’s largest cities but only one, Bristol, opted for an elected mayor. Overall, there is no evidence of widespread public support, yet the prospect of more mayors – with enhanced powers – remains firmly on the policy agenda.Drawing from a decade of research, this paper considers reasons for the persistence of the mayoral experiment, the importance of local factors in the few areas where mayors hold office and the link to current policy debates. Using the authors’ analytical leadership grid, this paper links the governmental, governance and allegiance roles of mayors to the problematic nature of local leadership. It then draws tentative conclusions about the strange case of the elected mayor in England.

The spatial politics of siting a radioactive waste facility in Korea: A mixed methods approach

Low-level radioactive waste disposal facilities represent one of the most controversial Locally Unwanted Land-Uses (LULUs). In Korea in 2005, one of these disposal facilities was assigned to be placed in Gyeongju city after a competitive local referendum amongst four candidate cities took place. Many conflicts occurred between the residents living within and near the Gyeongju city following the decision. In this paper, we explore the spatial issues in the referendum system and aim to discover the reason behind these conflicts. To do so, we analyzed the spatial distribution of the acceptance rate in each ward of the four cities using several spatial statistical methods, Getis-Ord G and Gi*, and several types of interviews. We found that the referendum system has a problem with spatial inequity within and across its jurisdiction. Furthermore, the causes of the spatial outliers in the acceptance rate were verified by interviews. The results suggest that spatial matters should be considered to increase the local acceptance of LULUs.

Local Government Referendum

The calling of an early election on 7 September has stymied the simultaneous holding of the local government referendum. But the referendum could still be held by a new government up until mid December (six months after it was passed by Parliament). If it is held, what is it all about and what factors should influence voters?

Controlling Local Government Spending: The Implementation and Impact of Capping Council Taxes

The level of local fiscal autonomy is widely regarded as an important indicator of the state of central-local relations and the capping of council tax increases has proved to be one of the most contentious of all of the constraints placed on local authorities by UK central government. Over the last decade the devolved administrations in Scotland and Wales have moved away from capping in favour of a more consensual approach. This decision reflects the difference in scale and nature of their policy communities and appears to have been at least as successful in controlling increases in local taxes as the more directive, top-down strategy favoured by policymakers in England. The current UK government's proposals to promote local referenda rather than ministerial diktat as the means of controlling council tax levels represents a potentially important new but as yet unproven approach.

The Citizen – Instrument and Beneficiary af Local Participatory Democracy. Models of Good Practices. The French Experience

The aim of our study is to identify and describe how the French legislator brought under regulation the participation instrum ents which allow the French citizens to actively get involved in the life of their society, except the periodic elections. Besides the national referendum, the legislator thus established the local referendum, the petitionary matters, the local council, the consultative committees etc. The local French authorities established in their turn a series of instruments and resorts designed to offer the citizen the possibility to have a passive role play within the decision-making process. In order to illustrate the theory, we have choosen a few models of good practices in Lyon, Rhône-Alpes region, and Lille. The provided examples made us draw the conclusion that the local authorities focus their attention on the French citizen.

Mergers of municipalities in Greek local government. An evaluation by means of a S.W.O.T. analysis

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the reforms in local government that took place in Greece during the last fi fteen years. The aim of the reforms was the creation of strong local government entities, i.e. powerful and effi cient local authorities, able to plan and implement local development policies, and to provide effective and qualitatively superior services to citizens. SWOT analysis is used in order to identify the advantages and disadvantages, opportunities and threats of the “Kallikrates” Program. Results indicate that the new reform offers to local government new powers and resources and therefore leads to improved effectiveness; reduced operating costs and promotion of the active participa tion of citizens in public affairs, by means of local referendums. However, there are also threats created for the reform, which are related to the broader fi nancial crisis, the disputes of political powers on the substance of the reform, the boundaries of new municipalities and the needs in personnel.

De-politicising Airport Expansion

Airport expansion must be wrestled from government’s hands, argues new report Summary: Opposition to air travel has never been about carbon emissions alone. Papers that criticise air travel often begin with a discussion of environmental impacts, but then quickly morph into an aesthetic critique of mass tourism, which is presented as tacky and vulgar. Stopping low-budget tourism through taxation, regulation and re-education quickly becomes an aim in its own right, rather than a necessary price to pay for the sake of limiting climate change. The liberalisation of air travel that began in the mid-1980s was a great free-market success story. The sector has grown at enviable rates, and air travel has become accessible to low- income earners. But as a consequence of this success, the sector is now bursting at the seams in the south-east, as airport capacity has become its bottleneck. The great inconsistency is that while air travel is generally left to market forces, airport capacity has remained a political issue. This paper does not propose a free-for-all in aviation. It recognises the existence of externalities, both globally (carbon emissions) and locally (noise). The issue of environmental externalities, however, has already been solved, and in fact ‘over-solved’. Rates of Air Passenger Duty (APD) already exceed estimates of the social cost of carbon, which simply means that air travellers are already overcharged for the modest environmental damage they cause. Aviation emissions are not just taxed through APD, but also capped in total, because the sector has now been included in the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). Each of these measures, APD and ETS, would in itself be sufficient to solve the environmental problems associated with air travel. Their combination represents environmental overkill, or more precisely, the overcharging of air travellers. Defenders of airport expansion no longer dare to defend leisure travel, and prefer to escape into a ‘global race’ rhetoric in which airport capacity is presented as a means to boost economic growth. This produces economically unsound arguments. At worst, the global race rhetoric can be construed as a justification for an industrial policy style approach to airport expansion, which involves the commitment of public funds. But the public sector has a poor track record as an airport investor. Spain’s ‘ghost airports’ serve as a reminder of the dangers of getting the public sector involved. Airport investment decisions should be left to the market, and taxpayers should never have to underwrite private investment risks. To get the national politics out of airport investment decisions, airports have to be given a means to find an agreement with those affected by their decisions, that is, the residents exposed to aircraft noise. The aim should be to create a framework for something approaching a ‘Coasean’ solution, in which residents could ‘sell’ the right to emit noise in exchange for a fee that they are free to set. That fee would be compensation for having to put up with noise, and its level would reflect the strength of residents’ aversion to noise. Airport activity would be redirected to the areas where people are least noise-averse, because these areas would charge the lowest compensation fees. The ‘Coasean’ solution is an abstract idea. One way to put it into practice is to delegate the power to approve or refuse applications for airport expansions to the local councils representing the noise-affected residents. The airport could couple its application with an offer for a compensation payment, and demand a local referendum on the proposal. A broader solution would be to adopt a more decentralised tax system more generally, thus ensuring that the tax revenue generated at and around an airport stays in the local area, rather than being transferred to the national level. The surroundings of large airports could then become ‘tax havens’: airports would account for a large share of the local tax revenue, so residents could enjoy both low taxes and excellent local public services/infrastructure. Supporters of airport expansion should stop hiding behind an instrumental defence of aviation, and openly make the case for air travel as a leisure industry. They should confront the mindset of ‘Malthusian miserabilism’ which characterises modern environmentalism. Environmentalists have become the latter-day heirs of the Duke of Wellington, who opposed railway travel on the grounds that it would ‘only encourage the lower classes to move about needlessly’.

The Initiation of Local Authority Referendums: Participatory Momentum or Political Tactics? The UK Case

Local authority-initiated referendums have been a cornerstone of the UK Government's drive to improve citizen participation at the local level. Authorities have increasingly made use of local referendums since the 1990s, but little research has been carried out to explain and qualify this surge. Focusing on a case study of a recent referendum in Greater Manchester, and comparing it to other significant local referendums, this article analyses their initiation according to Morel's (2007) functional model. Findings reveal that referendums were most often held to smooth over divisions within local parties or assemblies, to legitimate a controversial decision or to weaken political adversaries. Local authorities therefore never employed referendums as genuine participatory tools, but rather as a pragmatic and tactical solution to a given political problem. Consequently, the long-term impact of local referendums on citizen participation remains questionable.

Local Governance and the Online Networked Public Sphere—A Case Study

ABSTRACT What are the prospects for the Web enhancing the local governance process by providing a networked public sphere? This article addresses this question by researching online local civic activity associated with a case study of a UK local government referendum. Drawing upon social network analysis theory, this research first of all applies relational hyperlink analysis to map and structurally analyze the hyperlinked network. Second, it draws upon a network ethnography approach to identify and then interview key actors associated with this network. The results suggest a need for policy intervention to counter the distinct homophily effects and “politics as usual” scenario uncovered in the local online network.

Location of Public Goods and the Calculus of Voting: The Seattle Monorail Referendum*

Objectives. In this article we explore how the geographic location of a proposed public good on the ballot in a local referendum influences voting turnout. We argue that voters who live farther away from the good, and are thus likely to bear the cost of the good but have no access to it, would be more motivated to turn out in the election. Drawing on the cost-orientation hypothesis, or negativity effect, “that people are more strongly motivated to avoid losses than to approach gains,” we expect these voters to derive higher expressive benefits from the act of voting relative to those of voters located closer to the good. Methods. We examine voting turnout in the 2002 referendum in the City of Seattle on the proposed construction of a monorail. We conduct our study at the precinct level using spatial tools of analysis. We evaluate the effect of accessibility on turnout by means of a curvilinear model that incorporates demographic and political variables. Results. We find that voting turnout is determined partly by accessibility. Turnout is higher in precincts located farther away from the monorail line than in precincts located relatively closer to the line. Partisanship conditions this effect. Conclusions. This study provides tentative support for linking voter turnout to the negativity effect via expressive benefits. Voters' location in relation to a public good may affect directly their political behavior by means of their perceived net gains or losses from the good.