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 sobre las causas del uso de votaciones populares iniciadas por el gobierno

ANITA BREUER

Department of Comparative Politics, University of Cologne

Over the past two years there’s been an increase that is considerable the sheer number of referendums global. The literature that is existing direct democracy has thus far neglected to explain this sensation by delivering a frequent concept from the reasons for referendums. This study that is explorative at undertaking actions toward shutting this space by concentrating on the particular form of facultative government-initiated referendums (FGIR) and their use within presidential systems. Utilizing QC A (a technique that is case-sensitive regarding the formal logic of Boolean algebra), this research methodically compares the governmental opportunity 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 amounts of celebration system fragmentation and divided federal government, in other words. two facets which may have always been considered problematic within the context of presidential systems, while their obstruction is especially owed towards the certain constitutional conditions managing the referendum unit.

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, 2 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

The practical application of direct democratic instruments has increased considerably (LeDuc, 2003). 2 This trend has attracted scholarly attention and over recent years, considerable research investigating direct democracy has been published in renowned journals in the field of political science from the 1960s onwards, various nations of the world embraced the idea of direct democracy and over the past two decades. To date this literature has primarily centered on the 2 nations that many usually utilize referendums, Switzerland therefore the united states of america from the state degree (Ladner and Brandle, 1999; Gerber, 1996; Papadopulos, 2001; Tolbert and Hero, 1996; Vatter and Freitag, 2006), while a smaller sized quantity of magazines have actually dedicated to the revolution of referendums entailed in the act of European integration (Hug and Sciarini, 2000; Franklin et ah, 1995). These magazines have significantly added to your knowledge in connection with effect of referendums on politics as well as on diverse societal aspects. But, they will have perhaps not yet produced a theory that is consistent the reasons for referendums. The aim of this paper is always to undertake steps that are initial bridging this space.

To a big extent, the ‘boom’ in direct democracy could be credited toward the increased quantity of citizen-initiated referendums and, to an inferior level, mandatory referendums (Morel, 2001) This development happens to be welcomed by advocates of direct democracy whom stress the potential of the tools to foster bottom-up participation and straight accountability (Barber, 1984; Schmitter, 2000). However, on a few occasions, non-mandatory referendums on crucial governmental concerns happen initiated by regulating bodies in other words. legislatures or professionals. Such government-initiated referendums, which can be described as plebiscites, 3 a https://freedatingcanada.com/plentyoffish-review/ phrase that carries a small connotation that is negative mostly retain control of political decision-making in the hands of elected officials.

The occurrence of facultative government-initiated referendums (FGIR) 4 poses a theoretical puzzle (Rahat, 2007) despite contributing little to the overall increase in direct democracy.

Even though it is understandable that citizens will be involved in processes of decision-making when because of the directly to do this, governmental elites’ utilization of direct democratic instruments is harder to understand. Exactly just What motivates authorities that are governing start referendums? Why should democratically legitimised representatives voluntarily provide their monopoly up to legislate, redistribute energy downwards, equal themselves with ordinary residents in political decision-making, and fundamentally expose on their own towards the danger of losing in the ballot field? The main goal of this study that is explorative to supply possible responses to these questions.