recall referendum (also known as a recall election) is a procedure to remove officials before the end of
their term of office. Depending on the area and position a recall may be for a specific individual, such as
an individual legislator, or more general such as an entire legislature. In the U.S States of Arizona,
Montana, and Nevada, the recall may be used against any public official at any level of government
including both elected and appointed officials.[17]
Independence Referendum
Main article: Independence referendum
Some territories may hold referendums on whether to become independent sovereign states. These
types of referendums may legally sanction and binding, such as the 2011 referendum for the
independence of South Sudan, or in some cases may not be sanctioned and considered illegal, such as
the 2017 referendum for the independence of Catalonia.
A deliberative referendum is a referendum specifically designed to improve the deliberative qualities of
the campaign preceding the referendum vote, and/or of the act of voting itself.
Rationale
From a political-philosophical perspective, referendums are an expression of direct democracy, but
today, most referendums need to be understood within the context of representative democracy. They
tend to be used quite selectively, covering issues such as changes in voting systems, where currently
elected officials may not have the legitimacy or inclination to implement such changes.
Referendums by country
Further information: Referendums by country
Since the end of the 18th century, hundreds of national referendums have been organised in the world;
[18] almost 600 national votes were held in Switzerland since its inauguration as a modern state in 1848.
[19] Italy ranked second with 72 national referendums: 67 popular referendums (46 of which were
proposed by the Radical Party), 3 constitutional referendums, one institutional referendum and one
advisory referendum.[20]
Multiple-choice referendums
See also: Category:Multiple-choice referendums.
A referendum usually offers the electorate a choice of accepting or rejecting a proposal, but not always.
Some referendums give voters the choice among multiple choices and some use transferable voting.
In Switzerland, for example, multiple choice referendums are common. Two multiple choice referendums
were held in Sweden, in 1957 and in 1980, in which voters were offered three options. In 1977, a
referendum held in Australia to determine a new national anthem was held in which voters had four
choices. In 1992, New Zealand held a five-option referendum on their electoral system. In 1982, Guam
had referendum that used six options, with an additional blank option for those wishing to (campaign
and) vote for their own seventh option.
A multiple choice referendum poses the question of how the result is to be determined. They may be set
up so that if no single option receives the support of an absolute majority (more than half) of the votes,
resort can be made to the two-round system or instant-runoff voting, which is also called IRV and PV.
In 2018 the Irish Citizens' Assembly considered the conduct of future referendums in Ireland, with 76 of
the members in favour of allowing more than two options, and 52% favouring preferential voting in such
cases.[21] Other people regard a non-majoritarian methodology like the Modified Borda Count (MBC) as
more inclusive and more accurate.
Swiss referendums offer a separate vote on each of the multiple options as well as an additional decision
about which of the multiple options should be preferred. In the Swedish case, in both referendums the
'winning' option was chosen by the Single Member Plurality ("first past the post") system. In other
words, the winning option was deemed to be that supported by a plurality, rather than an absolute
majority, of voters. In the 1977, Australian referendum, the winner was chosen by the system of
preferential instant-runoff voting (IRV). Polls in Newfoundland (1949) and Guam (1982), for example,
were counted under a form of the two-round system, and an unusual form of TRS was used in the 1992
New Zealand poll.
Although California has not held multiple-choice referendums in the Swiss or Swedish sense (in which
only one of several counter-propositions can be victorious, and the losing proposals are wholly null and
void), it does have so many yes-or-no referendums at each Election Day that conflicts arise. The State's
Constitution provides a method for resolving conflicts when two or more inconsistent propositions are
passed on the same day. This is a de facto form of approval voting—i.e. the proposition with the most
"yes" votes prevails over the others to the extent of any conflict.
Another voting system that could be used in multiple-choice referendum is the Condorcet rule.
Criticisms
Criticism of populist aspect
Pro-Russian protesters in Odessa, Ukraine, demanding a referendum, March 30, 2014
2015 Greek bailout referendum Demonstration for "NO" vote Syntagma square Athens, Greece
Critics[who?] of the referendum argue that voters in a referendum are more likely to be driven by
transient whims than by careful deliberation, or that they are not sufficiently informed to make decisions
on complicated or technical issues. Also, voters might be swayed by propaganda, strong personalities,
intimidation, and expensive advertising campaigns. James Madison argued that direct democracy is the
"tyranny of the majority".
Some opposition to the referendum has arisen from its use by dictators such as Adolf Hitler and Benito
Mussolini who, it is argued,[22] used the plebiscite to disguise oppressive policies as populism. Dictators
may also make use of referendums as well as show elections to further legitimize their authority such as
António de Oliveira Salazar in 1933, Benito Mussolini in 1934, Adolf Hitler in 1936, Francisco Franco in
1947, Park Chung-hee in 1972, and Ferdinand Marcos in 1973. Hitler's use of plebiscites is argued[by
whom?] as the reason why, since World War II, there has been no provision in Germany for the holding
of referendums at the federal level.
In recent years, referendums have been used strategically by several European governments trying to
pursue political and electoral goals.[23]
In 1995, Bruton considered that
All governments are unpopular. Given the chance, people would vote against them in a referendum.
Therefore avoid referendums. Therefore don’t raise questions which require them, such as the big versus
the little states.[24].
Closed questions and the separability problem
Some critics of the referendum attack the use of closed questions. A difficulty called the separability
problem can plague a referendum on two or more issues. If one issue is in fact, or in perception, related
to another on the ballot, the imposed simultaneous voting of first preference on each issue can result in
an outcome which is displeasing to most.
Undue limitations on regular government power
Several commentators have noted that the use of citizens' initiatives to amend constitutions has so tied
the government to a jumble of popular demands as to render the government unworkable. A 2009
article in The Economist argued that this had restricted the ability of the California state government to
tax the people and pass the budget, and called for an entirely new Californian constitution.[25]
A similar problem also arises when elected governments accumulate excessive debts. That can severely
reduce the effective margin for later governments.
Both these problems can be moderated by a combination of other measures as
strict rules for correct accounting on budget plans and effective public expenditure;
mandatory assessment by an independent public institution of all budgetary implications of all legislative
proposals, before they can be approved;
mandatory prior assessment of the constitutional coherence of any proposal;
interdiction of extra-budget expenditure (tax payers anyway have to fund them, sooner or later).
Sources
The Federal Authorities of the Swiss Confederation, statistics (German).
https://web.archive.org/web/20081210071708/http://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/portal/de/index/themen/
17/03/blank/key/stimmbeteiligung.html
Turcoane, Ovidiu (2015). "A proposed contextual evaluation of referendum quorum using fuzzy logics"
(PDF). Journal of Applied Quantitative Methods. 10 (2): 83–93.
See also
Referendums by country
Popular referendum
Initiative
Direct democracy
Mandatory referendum
Optional referendum
Right to petition
Independence referendum
War referendum
