How Referendums Challenge European Democracy
How Referendums Challenge European Democracy

Author: Richard Rose

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2020-04-22

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 3030441172

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This book explains how citizens are using referendums to challenge decisions taken by the European Union. The opening chapters compare the two chief institutions of electoral democracy: parliamentary elections to decide who governs, and referendums to decide policies. The EU relies on international treaties for its authority to make policies. Chapters analysing referendum voting on Europe in Britain, Greece and the Netherlands show that cultural values can have a stronger influence than class. The book uses Brexit – the British referendum in which a majority voted for the UK leaving the European Union – as the leading example of a conflict between national voters and the EU. However, taking back control of policymaking does not ensure effective policymaking when success depends not only on what the British Parliament does but also on decisions taken in Brussels, Washington and elsewhere. Boris Johnson’s electoral success is insufficient to deliver all his promises in the world beyond Brexit. The EU is challenged too, as its policies increasingly depend on what happens on other continents.

Let the People Rule
Let the People Rule

Author: John G. Matsusaka

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2020-02-25

Total Pages: 312

ISBN-13: 0691199728

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How referendums can diffuse populist tensions by putting power back into the hands of the people Propelled by the belief that government has slipped out of the hands of ordinary citizens, a surging wave of populism is destabilizing democracies around the world. As John Matsusaka reveals in Let the People Rule, this belief is based in fact. Over the past century, while democratic governments have become more efficient, they have also become more disconnected from the people they purport to represent. The solution Matsusaka advances is familiar but surprisingly underused: direct democracy, in the form of referendums. While this might seem like a dangerous idea post-Brexit, there is a great deal of evidence that, with careful design and thoughtful implementation, referendums can help bridge the growing gulf between the government and the people. Drawing on examples from around the world, Matsusaka shows how direct democracy can bring policies back in line with the will of the people (and provide other benefits, like curbing corruption). Taking lessons from failed processes like Brexit, he also describes what issues are best suited to referendums and how they should be designed, and he tackles questions that have long vexed direct democracy: can voters be trusted to choose reasonable policies, and can minority rights survive majority decisions? The result is one of the most comprehensive examinations of direct democracy to date—coupled with concrete, nonpartisan proposals for how countries can make the most of the powerful tools that referendums offer. With a crisis of representation hobbling democracies across the globe, Let the People Rule offers important new ideas about the crucial role the referendum can play in the future of government.

Government by Referendum
Government by Referendum

Author: Matt Qvortrup

Publisher: Pocket Politics

Published: 2018

Total Pages: 99

ISBN-13: 9781526130037

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A perfect primer for anyone interested in the politics of referendums.

Europe in Question
Europe in Question

Author: Sara Binzer Hobolt

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 318

ISBN-13:

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Direct democracy has become an increasingly common feature of European politics with important implications for policy making in the European Union. The no-votes in referendums in France and the Netherlands put an end to the Constitutional Treaty, and the Irish electorate has caused another political crisis in Europe by rejecting the Lisbon Treaty. Europe in Question explains how voters decide in referendums on European integration. It presents a comprehensive theoretical framework for understanding voting behaviour in referendums and a thorough comparative analysis of EU referendums from 1972 to 2008. To examine why people vote the way they do, the role of political elites and the impact of the campaign dynamics, this books relies on a variety of sources including survey data, content analysis of media coverage, experimental studies, and elite interviews. The book illustrates the importance of campaign dynamics and elite endorsements in shaping public opinion, electoral mobilization and vote choices. Referendums are often criticized for presenting citizens with choices that are too complex and thereby generating outcomes that have little or no connection with the ballot proposal. Importantly this book shows that voters are smarter than they are often given credit for. They may not be fully informed about European politics, but they do consider the issues at stake before they go to the ballot box and they make use of the information provided by parties and the campaign environment. Direct democracy may not always produce the outcomes that are desired by politicians. But voters are far more competent than commonly perceived.

Framing the European Union
Framing the European Union

Author: Ece Özlem Atikcan

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2015-10-09

Total Pages: 341

ISBN-13: 1107115175

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This accessible study explores the impact of political language and campaigning upon public opinion towards European integration.

Centripetal Democracy
Centripetal Democracy

Author: Joseph Lacey

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2017-03-31

Total Pages: 363

ISBN-13: 0192517155

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Centripetal democracy is the idea that legitimate democratic institutions set in motion forms of citizen practice and representative behaviour that serve as powerful drivers of political identity formation. Partisan modes of political representation in the context of multifaceted electoral and direct democratic voting opportunities are emphasised on this model. There is, however, a strain of thought predominant in political theory that doubts the democratic capacities of political systems constituted by multiple public spheres. This view is referred to as the lingua franca thesis on sustainable democratic systems (LFT). Inadequate democratic institutions and acute demands to divide the political system (through devolution or secession), are predicted by this thesis. By combining an original normative democratic theory with a comparative analysis of how Belgium and Switzerland have variously managed to sustain themselves as multilingual democracies, this book identifies the main institutional features of a democratically legitimate European Union and the conditions required to bring it about. Part One presents a novel theory of democratic legitimacy and political identity formation on which subsequent analyses are based. Part Two defines the EU as a demoi-cracy and provides a thorough democratic assessment of this political system. Part Three explains why Belgium has largely succumbed to the centrifugal logic predicted by the LFT, while Switzerland apparently defies this logic. Part Four presents a model of centripetal democracy for the EU, one that would greatly reduce its democratic deficit and ensure that this political system does not succumb to the centrifugal forces expected by the LFT.

Representing Europeans
Representing Europeans

Author: Richard Rose

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2013-04-25

Total Pages: 177

ISBN-13: 019965476X

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A major new reassessment of the problems facing the European Union by one of the world's leading political scientists. The author shows exactly how the EU must adapt to the demands of representing its citizens if it is to survive at all.

The Palgrave Handbook of European Referendums
The Palgrave Handbook of European Referendums

Author: Julie Smith

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2021-03-02

Total Pages: 736

ISBN-13: 3030558037

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This handbook provides an empirically rich analysis of referendums in Europe from the end of the Second World War to the present. It addresses a range of perennial theoretical and legal questions that face policy-makers when they offer citizens the chance to take or influence decisions by referendum, not least whether to accept the ‘will of the people’. Taking a multi-disciplinary approach, drawing on historical, philosophical and political science perspectives, the book includes a contextual section on the history of referendums, the theoretical questions underpinning their use, and on constitutional and legal questions about the use of referendums. The empirical sections are divided into those referendums that focus on domestic issues, such as constitutional matters or questions of social policy, and those related to the European Union, including membership referendums and treaty ratification.

Developing Democracy in Europe
Developing Democracy in Europe

Author: Lawrence Pratchett

Publisher: Council of Europe

Published: 2004-01-01

Total Pages: 116

ISBN-13: 9789287155795

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Published as part of the integrated project "Making democratic institutions work"

The Oxford Handbook of Political Representation in Liberal Democracies
The Oxford Handbook of Political Representation in Liberal Democracies

Author: Robert Rohrschneider

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2020-07-28

Total Pages: 731

ISBN-13: 0192558692

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The Handbook of Political Representation in Liberal Democracies offers a state-of-the-art assessment of the functioning of political representation in liberal democracies. In 34 chapters the world's leading scholars on the various aspects of political representation address eight broad themes: The concept and theories of political representation, its history and the main requisites for its development; elite orientations and behavior; descriptive representation; party government and representation; non-electoral forms of political participation and how they relate to political representation; the challenges to representative democracy originating from the growing importance of non-majoritarian institutions and social media; the rise of populism and its consequences for the functioning of representative democracy; the challenge caused by economic and political globlization: what does it mean for the functioning of political representation at the national leval and is it possible to develop institutions of representative democracy at a level above the state that meet the normative criteria of representative democracy and are supported by the people? The various chapters offer a comprehensive review of the literature on the various aspects of political representation. The main organizing principle of the Handbook is the chain of political representation, the chain connecting the interests and policy preferences of the people to public policy via political parties, parliament, and government. Most of the chapters assessing the functioning of the chain of political representation and its various links are based on original comparative political research. Comparative research on political representation and its various subfields has developed dramatically over the last decades so that even ten years ago a Handbook like this would have looked totally different.