REVISTA DE CIENCIA POLГЌTICA / VOLUMEN 29/ NВ° 1 / 2009 / 23 – 55

The Application 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

Within the last two years there is a substantial boost in how many referendums global. The current literary works on direct democracy has thus far neglected to explain this occurrence by delivering a frequent concept in the causes of referendums. This explorative research aims at undertaking actions toward shutting this space by centering on the precise form of facultative government-initiated referendums (FGIR) and their used in presidential systems. Utilizing QC A (a technique that is case-sensitive from the formal logic of Boolean algebra), this research methodically compares the governmental possibility structures of 49 presidential systems from 12 Latin US nations to identify the factors that spurred or obstructed the event of FGIR. It concludes that FGIR are closely associated with high quantities of celebration system fragmentation and split federal government, in other words. two facets which may have always been considered problematic into the context of presidential systems, while their obstruction is especially owed towards the particular provisions that are constitutional 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 dar un paso adelante 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 Dominican Cupid mobile site 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 estimulan that is que 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. Up to now this literary works has primarily centered on the 2 nations that many often use referendums, Switzerland therefore the united states of america in the state degree (Ladner and Brandle, 1999; Gerber, 1996; Papadopulos, 2001; Tolbert and Hero, 1996; Vatter and Freitag, 2006), while an inferior 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 actually greatly added to the knowledge concerning the effect of referendums on politics as well as on diverse societal aspects. Nonetheless, they will have perhaps not yet produced a theory that is consistent the factors that cause referendums. The goal of this paper is always to undertake steps that are initial bridging this space.

To a big level, the ‘boom’ in direct democracy could 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 those 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 regulating bodies for example. legislatures or professionals. Such government-initiated referendums, which can be described as plebiscites, 3 a term that holds a small negative connotation, mostly retain control of governmental decision-making in the possession of 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 residents will be involved in processes of decision-making when because of the straight to do this, political elites’ usage of direct democratic instruments is harder to grasp. Exactly just What motivates regulating authorities to start referendums? Why should democratically legitimised representatives voluntarily offer up their monopoly to legislate, redistribute energy downwards, equal themselves with ordinary residents in governmental decision-making, and ultimately expose on their own to your threat of losing during the ballot field? The main purpose of this study that is explorative to deliver possible responses to these concerns.