REVISTA DE CIENCIA POLГЌTICA / VOLUMEN 29/ NВ° 1 / 2009 / 23 – 55
The Employment Of Government-Initiated Referendums in Latin America. Towards a Theory of Referendum Causes
El uso de los referendos de iniciativa gubernamental en AmГ©rica Latina. Hacia una teorГa las that are sobre del uso de votaciones populares iniciadas por el gobierno
ANITA BREUER
Department of Comparative Politics, University of Cologne
In the last two years there is a substantial rise in the sheer number of referendums global. The literature that is existing direct democracy has thus far did not explain this occurrence by delivering a regular concept in the factors behind referendums. This explorative study aims at undertaking actions toward closing this space by concentrating on the particular kind of facultative government-initiated referendums (FGIR) and their use within presidential systems. Utilizing QC A (a case-sensitive technique based regarding the formal logic of Boolean algebra), this research methodically compares the governmental possibility structures of 49 presidential systems from 12 Latin US nations to detect the factors that spurred or obstructed the event of FGIR. It concludes that FGIR are closely associated with high degrees of party system fragmentation and split government, in other words. two facets that have always been deemed problematic when you look at the context of presidential systems, while their obstruction is primarily owed towards the particular constitutional provisions managing the referendum device.
Keyword Phrases: Referendums, Latin America, Fragmentation, Direct Democracy.
RESUMEN
En las Гєltimas dos dГ©cadas Ma existido alrededor del mundo un considerable aumento en el nГєmero de votaciones populares. En cambio, la literatura existente sobre democracia directa no na sabido explicar el fenГіmeno mediante una teorГa consistente de las causas de los referendums. Este estudio exploratorio busca paso that is dar un para cerrar esta brecha, enfocГЎndose en los referendum facultativos iniciados por poderes polГticos formales (facultative government-initiated referendums – FGIR) y su uso en los sistemas presidenciales. Utilizando OCA (tГ©cnica basada en lГіgica formal de ГЎlgebra booleanas), este estudio hace una comparaciГіn sistemГЎtica de la estructura de oportunidades polГticas de 49 sistemas presidenciales de 12 paГses de AmГ©rica Latina, para detectar los factores que estimulan u obstruyen la ocurrencia de FGIR. Se concluye que los FGIR estГЎn fuertemente ligados a altos niveles de fragmentaciГіn partidaria y gobiernos divididos, dos factores que han sido problemГЎticos en los contextos de sistemas presidenciales. Por su parte, la obstrucciГіn se tiene que principalmente a provisiones constitucionales especГficas que regulan los dispositivos de las votaciones populares iniciadas por el gobierno.
Palabras Clave: Plebiscito, AmГ©rica Latina, fragmentaciГіn, democracia directa.
I. INTRODUCTION 1
From the 1960s onwards, different countries around the globe embraced the thought of direct democracy and within the last two decades, the program of direct democratic instruments has increased dramatically (LeDuc, 2003). 2 This trend has attracted scholarly attention and over the last few years, considerable research investigating direct democracy was published in known journals in the field of political technology. Thus far this literary works has mainly centered on the 2 nations that many often utilize referendums, Switzerland plus the united states of america from the continuing state degree (Ladner and Brandle, 1999; Gerber, 1996; Papadopulos, 2001; Tolbert and Hero, 1996; Vatter and Freitag, 2006), while an inferior quantity of publications have dedicated to the wave of referendums entailed in the act of European integration (Hug and Sciarini, 2000; Franklin et ah, 1995). These magazines have significantly added to the knowledge about the effect of referendums on politics as well as on diverse societal aspects. Nonetheless, they will have perhaps perhaps not yet produced a constant concept on the https://www.sex-match.org/adultfriendfinder-com-review/ reasons for referendums. The aim of this paper is always to undertake steps that are initial bridging this gap.
Up To an extent that is large the ‘boom’ in direct democracy may be credited toward the increased quantity of citizen-initiated referendums and, to an inferior degree, mandatory referendums (Morel, 2001) This development happens to be welcomed by advocates of direct democracy who stress the possibility of the tools to foster bottom-up participation and straight accountability (Barber, 1984; Schmitter, 2000). Nonetheless, on a few occasions, non-mandatory referendums on important governmental concerns have now been initiated by governing bodies for example. legislatures or executives. Such government-initiated referendums, which can be described as plebiscites, 3 a phrase that carries a small negative connotation, mostly retain control of governmental decision-making in the possession of of elected officials.
Despite contributing little to the entire escalation in direct democracy, the occurrence of facultative government-initiated referendums (FGIR) 4 poses a theoretical puzzle (Rahat, 2007).
Even though it is understandable that residents will be involved in processes of decision-making when because of the straight to do this, governmental elites’ usage of direct democratic instruments is harder to understand. Exactly What motivates governing authorities to start referendums? Why should democratically legitimised representatives voluntarily offer their monopoly up to legislate, redistribute power downwards, equal themselves with ordinary residents in governmental decision-making, and fundamentally expose on their own to your danger of losing in the ballot field? The central purpose of this study that is explorative to supply prospective answers to those concerns.