Referendum Campaign Research Articles

Armed Violence and the Politics of Gun Control in Brazil: An Analysis of the 2005 Referendum

This article analyses the factors behind the paradoxical result of the Brazilian gun‐control referendum. It adopts a qualitative approach to explore the dissemination of ideologies surrounding crime, gun control and security. For this purpose, interviews were conducted with activists involved in the referendum's campaign. The results reveal that ideologically driven campaigns in a context of corruption scandals, high levels of violence and fear influenced the result. The neoliberal discourse of individual freedoms played a role, as did the phrasing of the referendum's question, fragile confidence in public institutions and unequal campaign funding and regulation.

Engagement in the 2014 Scottish referendum campaign

Engagement in the 2014 Scottish referendum campaign

Falling short of expectations: the 2012 children amendment, from drafting to referendum

ABSTRACTIn November 2012, the Irish electorate approved a new provision in the Constitution dedicated to children’s rights. The popular portrayal of the referendum campaign was that it was largely uncontroversial, albeit with a sting in the tail. However, this over-simplifies the reality of a political struggle that was vigorously contested for almost a decade before the actual referendum campaign. While the idea of a children’s rights amendment was never far from the political agenda during this period, the political appetite for ambitious reform ebbed and flowed. The campaign itself was successful in passing the amendment, but the outcome was nonetheless seen as a disappointing one. This paper will explore two questions regarding the genesis and evolution of the children amendment, from initial public consultations through to the referendum campaign. First, what were the political forces that sought to influence the wording of the amendment, and which side had more reason to be pleased with the final product? Second, what were the factors that caused the referendum campaign to play out in such an unsatisfactory way for the Government?

“It’s our Scotland just as much as anyone else’s”

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to look at some of the experiences of people with learning disabilities in Scotland during the Independence Referendum campaign, through the prism of a series of workshops run by a collective advocacy organisation. These workshops took an inclusive approach to the views of everyone with a learning disability. Design/methodology/approach – This paper is a record of the workshops written after the event. Findings – People with learning disabilities were engaged in the discussion and campaigns around the referendum in similar ways to other members of their communities. The issues that especially affect people with learning disabilities figured highly in the workshops. However, there was also discussion of more general issues such as employment, jobs and constitutional arrangements that affect all citizens. Research limitations/implications – This is an observational study written up by the workshop leader and, as such, can make no claims of complete impartiality. Practical implications – Experience of the workshops suggests that many of the barriers that prevent civic participation of people with learning disabilities may be ones of staff attitude and approach. The support offered to enable people to take part in the community may on some occasions have the opposite effect. Social implications – Nonetheless, for those who have been able to overcome these barriers, there are signs of much greater participation in public life. This reflects an ongoing process of change with many people now joining political parties or being able to make contributions towards political debate. Originality/value – This paper provides an important record of the growing involvement of people with learning disabilities in civil society.

Focus: Workers mustn't pay for Brexit

INTERNATIONAL union rights Page 3 Volume 23 Issue 2 2016 FOCUS ❐ BREXIT Workers mustn’t pay for Brexit In response to EU requirements, the government had to legislate to protect rights that would have been difficult to secure in the UK and are particularly vulnerable to attack because of Brexit The government should also act to protect working people’s pensions. The shock experienced by investment markets since the referendum risks inflating pension scheme deficits and undermining trustees’ funding plans. The Pensions Regulator should allow maximum flexibility in scheme funding to ensure that short-term volatility doesn’t lead to a fresh round of pension fund closures and a hit to both the long-term savings of UK workers and the capacity of British companies to invest for the future. Rights at work UK workers should also not pay the price of voting to leave the EU in terms of reduced rights at work. The European Union has played a central role in protecting working people from exploitation , combating discrimination and promoting good employment practices. Politicians from both sides defended these rights as part of the referendum campaign. The government should commit not to repeal any of the rights which are guaranteed by the EU. Watering down or dismantling this legislation would amount to a direct attack on the basic rights, security and standards of living working people and a denial of campaign promises. It would also risk further damaging confidence and spending, when it is vital not to let demand in the economy weaken. Since the mid-1970s, action taken by the European Union has played a central role in maintaining employment, in protecting of working people from exploitation, in combating discrimination and social exclusion and promoting good employment practices. In response to campaigns by trade unions in Britain and the rest of Europe, the EU adopted a diverse range of treaty provisions and directives that provide important employment protections, safeguard health and safety, and promote equality in the workplace. In some areas where the EU has legislated the UK already had laws in place such as equal pay, maternity rights, sex, disability and race discrimination, and health and safety. Even so, EU action in these areas has improved and extended rights and now underpins them, making it more difficult for the UK government to undermine them unilaterally. In other areas, the UK had to legislate for the first time in response to EU requirements. In some cases laws that resulted directly from EU directives are now broadly accepted, for example around sexual orientation, age and religion or belief discrimination. But other rights would have been difficult to secure in the UK and are particularly vulnerable to attack because of the referendum result. For example, UK governments strongly resisted equal treatment rights for agency workT he voters have been clear that they want the UK to leave the European Union. The task for the UK’s leaders is to work out how that can be achieved without working people paying the price. Years of uncertainty will be unhelpful for investment and would leave working people unable to plan their own futures. Investors will postpone job-creating investment until they know the UK’s future path, and people will put off major life decisions such as whether to marry, change jobs, start a family or buy a home. The government must urgently bring together a team of people to plan Britain’s next steps. This team must be cross-party, and have members not only from the London, Northern Ireland, Scottish and Welsh administrations but also representatives of employers and unions. The top priority is to protect access to the EU’s single market, to which nearly half of our manufacturing and much of our services are exported. We need to build the growing consensus in favour of an arrangement that would guarantee jobs and rights at work, while respecting the wishes of the electorate to leave the EU. It may not be possible to secure consensus for an existing model of such relationships: we may need a specifically ‘British model’. But there are some key areas we can already map out – about wages, rights and taking back control of...

Perpetuating Britishness

In 1999 a devolved Scottish Parliament was established within the United Kingdom following a referendum two years earlier. The current governing party in that Parliament – the SNP – held a referendum on Scottish independence in September 2014, which resulted in a decision to stay within the UK. However, during the referendum campaign promises were made by the main UK parties to transfer further power away from the British Parliament at Westminster to the Scottish Parliament in the hope this would satisfy demands for greater self-government in Scotland. This paper analyses the rhetoric of the leaders of Britain’s two main political parties in an effort to detect strategies used to construct and perpetuate Britishness in the context of devolution and a threat to the British state. It finds a number of discursive strategies deployed to promote unity and difference to (non-British) others. It also suggests the apparent need by British political leaders to deploy such British-constructivist strategies involves avoiding even acknowledging the reality of a major constitutional reform such as devolution and therefore political difference between the nations of the UK.

‘The UK's strength is that everybody's in’: Scottish-American Reactions to the 2014 Independence Referendum

To explore US perspectives on the 2014 Independence Referendum, we assessed media coverage of the campaign and newspaper editorials, pairing these commentaries with interviews of Scottish-Americans conducted in the month immediately following the vote. Many in the United States perceived the referendum to be a model of participatory democracy, and recognized the complex issues that faced Scottish voters. In common with those in Scotland, economic concerns were primary, but added to these was an assessment of the USA's military relationship with the UK. We conclude by suggesting that American awareness of current Scottish politics was enhanced by the referendum campaign and discussions of it within the diaspora community.

The ‘English Question’: Why ‘English Votes’ are Not the Answer and the Better Alternatives Lack Force

In the short term at least, the outcome of the Scottish Independence referendum has settled the constitutional status of Scotland as part of the United Kingdom. During the referendum campaign, however, the major UK wide parties committed themselves to conferring a package of enhanced devolved powers upon Scotland in the event of a rejection of independence and the exact scope of these powers is in the process of being finalised. Although this ignited calls in Wales and Northern Ireland for an expansion of their own devolved powers, arguably more strongly felt pressures in the aftermath of the referendum have concerned the ‘West Lothian’ question; the fact that decisions on matters which only affect England are taken by a UK Parliament that comprises representatives from all four constituent parts of the UK, whereas the same matters are often legislated upon locally in those other parts of the UK without the involvement of representatives from England. There is much consensus on the need to address this anomaly of the current UK constitutional framework, but less agreement on how this ought to be done. This paper considers the debate over ‘English only votes’ at Westminster and identifies several flaws to such an initiative, which it is argued make it a dangerous mechanism that threatens the integrity of the UK. A new constitutional framework based upon regional or federal mechanisms represents the most logical and workable step forward, but it is doubtful whether sufficient political or public support exists for such a development to take place. The Scottish referendum campaign highlighted, if anything, the extent to which the UK’s future integrity is threatened by ideas of political difference and constitutional reform must take account of such realities. It must not be rushed, but based on sound logic and principle.

Europinė dimensija Lietuvos referendumų kampanijose

The referenda of the 21st century were also inevitably related with the European dimension: the referendum in 2003 on the membership of the Republic of Lithuania in the European Union (EU); the referendum of 2008 on exceeding the operation of the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant (INPP); the referendum of 2013 on building a new nuclear power plant in the Republic of Lithuania; and the referendum of 2014 on land for sale to foreigners. These four referenda are the object of this paper. It analyses the reflections of the European dimension in the referenda campaigns. The campaign slogans are mainly taken into account when reconstructing various discursive devices. The explanatory power of the new institutionalism (discursive) theories is discussed.

From One Referendum to the Other: the Scottish Dimension to the Debate over Europe

This paper examines the role played by the European issue in the Scottish referendum campaign, especially the way the SNP tried to use it to its advantage. It also focusses on the complex interplay between the Scottish referendum on independence and the possible future referendum on ‘Brexit’ which was promised by David Cameron for 2017, in particular looking at the different scenarios possible.

Better Together and the No Campaign: from Project Fear to Grace?

Better Together was the main umbrella organisation of the No camp during the 2014 Scottish independence referendum campaign. It represented the common effort of three otherwise unlikely-minded British parties to work together and publicly collaborate to safeguard the Union. The difficulties that this collaboration represents were immense in that the three participating parties had distinct electoral and political histories in Scotland and each faced inner divisions and distinct challenges which this paper seeks to examine.

The Puzzle of Double Referendums in the European Union

AbstractIf voters are asked to vote twice on the same issue in a single year, why might they initially reject the proposal but then vote to approve it the second time? This has happened three times in EU referendums (Denmark on the Maastricht Treaty in 1992–93 and Ireland on the Nice Treaty in 2001–02 and the Lisbon Treaty in 2008–09). No work has yet compared all six of these referendum campaigns. I focus on the campaign strategies of the Yes and No sides and investigate whether campaigners act differently in the second campaigns. Based on fieldwork in Denmark and Ireland, 38 in‐depth interviews with campaigners and public opinion data, I show that the Yes campaigners learned from their mistakes and changed their campaign strategies in the second rounds. Not only did they secure guarantees from the EU to neutralize the No side's arguments; they also used more emotional campaign arguments in the second campaigns.

The European Dimension to Scottish Constitutional Change

AbstractScottish self‐government and European integration are linked. Europe has become an important framework for the independence project. Evidence for Scots being more pro‐European is ambivalent, but there is a pro‐European consensus in Scottish political parties and civil society. In the referendum campaign, the No side suggested that an independent Scotland might not gain admission to the European Union. If the United Kingdom as a whole should vote to withdraw from the EU in a future referendum but Scotland to stay in, the independence question would re‐emerge. In the absence of independence, a number of issues arise as to how Scottish interests can best be represented in the EU.

Higher Education and the Referendum on Scottish Independence

AbstractDuring the course of the referendum campaign, the Scottish government argued that free tuition for Scottish and EU students symbolised Scotland's preference for universal services and was intrinsically fairer than the ‘marketised’ systems operating in the rest of the UK. Invoking principles of both social justice and pragmatism, three distinct critiques of the Scottish government's higher education policy were mounted and adopted by different policy actors for different political purposes. Following a discussion of these arguments, this article concludes that a more nuanced discussion of higher education policy in Scotland is required, focusing not just on the absence of tuition fees but also on the distribution of debt and allocation of funds across the entire education system. We also note that the focus on tuition fees policy suggests that higher education systems across the UK are set on a process of divergence, whereas there are strong pressures towards policy convergence in areas such as research policy and internationalisation.

Do rules matter? Categorizing the regulation of referendum campaigns

In recent years, democracies around the world have begun to turn increasingly to referendums in order to engage citizens and lessen the distance between government and the governed. There has been a diffusion of guidance on good practice on the regulation of referendums with proposals from the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe and the Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA), among others. Referendum campaign regulations in particular have proven controversial in many countries with changes often emanating from court rulings (Spain, Ireland and Denmark). The development of theories about the origins and impact of campaign regulations (elections and referendums) has not kept pace with newly emerging practices. This is especially true in the area of referendum campaigns. As a result, there are opportunities for researchers to systematically examine referendums. The field offers increasing scope for researchers to make policy-relevant contributions but first, it is necessary to understand and systematize which campaign regulations are in place before we can understand and assess what impact they have and whether they are in fact operating in the ways assumed. This article proposes an index of campaign regulation and an initial empirical application which allows for systematic cross national comparison of referendum campaign regulations.

Selective Media Exposure and Increasing Knowledge Gaps in Swiss Referendum Campaigns

This study aims to contribute to the discussion on how the growing opportunities for media choice influence gaps in political knowledge among those motivated to consume news versus those who are not. With more television channels available, it becomes easier to choose content matching personal interests. While several studies have analyzed trends in news consumption and motivations among different citizen groups, there are still very few studies that actually link these developments longitudinally to patterns of knowledge gaps. Using survey data from Swiss referendums held 1993–1999, we find that (1) gaps in political knowledge because of political interest have increased over time, and (2) political interest has become a stronger predictor of informational TV use.

Diffusion in Referendum Campaigns: The Case of EU Constitutional Referendums

The problem of cross-case influences is crucial in the analysis of social phenomena. Is a referendum held in a state entirely a ‘domestic’ event? No work has applied diffusion theories to the study of referendum campaigns. In this paper, I show diffusion effects among the 2005 Constitutional Treaty referendums. Spain, France, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg used the referendum method to ratify the European Constitution. Based on 85 interviews with campaigners in all four countries, I find that campaign arguments and strategies were not always homegrown. However, such diffusion is not automatic and depends on diffusion channels.

The devolution of social security benefits in Scotland: the Smith Commission

The United Kingdom is a unitary state, and social security benefits are some of the most centralised services in it. The powers of the Scottish Parliament in relation to benefits have been heavily restricted, to the point where they have fewer formal powers than an English local authority. Despite that, the Scottish Government has sought to use the limited authority it does have to mitigate the effect of UK welfare reforms. Following the independence referendum campaign, and the commitment of all UK parties to devolve greater powers, various options for devolution have been discussed, including powers over particular benefits. There are financial and administrative constraints to overcome, and potential problems wherever benefits interact with each other. The Smith Commission has recommended limited devolution, including a range of benefits relating to disability and elements of housing support, along with a power to create new benefits. This has to be done within a firmly hierarchical structure of authority, and there is scope for conflict as the detailed terms are negotiated and clarified.

Референдум о независимости Шотландии и проблемы британской государственности

The Scottish referendum occupies a special place in the row of events determining the very essence of the current political transformations in the United Kingdom, and is bound to influence both the future of the British statehood and the long-term development of British political institutions. The referendum campaign and the results of the Scottish vote have further aggravated the imbalances between the “home nations” in the UK. The promises given by the British political class to Scottish voters will have long-time consequences for the ardently debated constitutional reform. Relations between the political institutions of the UK and Scotland are becoming a decisive driver of governance decentralization and regionalization as well as of the general trend towards federalism. The changes in the Scottish political landscape and the voters’ behaviour can be regards as a message for other states with separatist risks. The politicization of Scottish identity, the affirmation of “home nations” identities and the growing importance of “the English question” for public opinion and political debates over the prospects of constitutional reform point to the changing nature of the nationalism in a society with strong civil institutions and a developed welfare state. “New” nationalism emerges as a hybrid phenomenon with political, economic and sociocultural connotations reflecting the expansion of the political sphere, and a strong civic identity – as a source of social consolidation of a modern nation.

Europinė dimensija Lietuvos referendumų kampanijose

The referenda of the 21st century were also inevitably related with the European dimension: the referendum in 2003 on the membership of the Republic of Lithuania in the European Union (EU); the referendum of 2008 on exceeding the operation of the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant (INPP); the referendum of 2013 on building a new nuclear power plant in the Republic of Lithuania; and the referendum of 2014 on land for sale to foreigners. These four referenda are the object of this paper. It analyses the reflections of the European dimension in the referenda campaigns. The campaign slogans are mainly taken into account when reconstructing various discursive devices. The explanatory power of the new institutionalism (discursive) theories is discussed.