Introduction: Referendum Democracy

Abstract

Referendums — whether government-sponsored or citizen-initiated — are being used more frequently than ever before in liberal-democratic societies. In jurisdictions with a long history of direct democracy, notably many of the western US states, more questions are being placed on the ballot than in previous decades. In societies where the referendum has been used only sparingly in the past (such as the United Kingdom, Denmark, and Canada), it has now become more common, and pressure from both the public and political leaders for its increased use continues to grow. Still other societies, such as Italy, have joined the US and Switzerland in employing the initiative as a regular mechanism of decision making. It is no longer the case that Switzerland and a number of US states stand as the only exceptions to the traditional model of representative democratic government. The Swiss and American cases remain anomalous, yet other systems have integrated the referendum into their decision-making apparatus to the point that our understanding of what we mean by representative democracy needs to be re-examined.¹