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

Making Use 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’s been a substantial escalation in the sheer number of referendums worldwide. The current literary works on direct democracy has thus far did not explain this occurrence by delivering a frequent concept in the factors that cause referendums. This study that is explorative at undertaking actions toward closing this gap by centering on the precise kind of facultative government-initiated referendums (FGIR) and their used in presidential systems. Utilizing QC A (a case-sensitive technique based from the formal logic of Boolean algebra), this research methodically compares the political possibility structures of 49 presidential systems from 12 Latin American countries to detect the factors that spurred or obstructed the event of FGIR. It concludes that FGIR are closely connected to high amounts of party system fragmentation and divided federal government, for example. two facets that have for ages been considered problematic when you look at the context of presidential systems, while their obstruction is especially owed into 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. No na sabido explicar el fenГіmeno mediante una teorГ­a consistente de las causas de los referendums sin embargo, la literatura existente sobre democracia directa. 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 mainly centered on the 2 nations that many often use referendums, Switzerland together with 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 a smaller sized amount of magazines have actually centered on the wave of referendums entailed in the act of European integration (Hug and Sciarini, 2000; Franklin et ah, 1995). These publications have actually significantly added to your knowledge concerning the effect of referendums on politics as well as on diverse societal aspects. Nevertheless, they will have maybe not yet produced a theory that is consistent the reasons for referendums. The goal of this paper would be 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 number of citizen-initiated referendums and, to an inferior degree, mandatory referendums (Morel, 2001) This development is welcomed by advocates of direct democracy who stress the potential of the tools to foster bottom-up participation and straight accountability (Barber, 1984; Schmitter, 2000). Nonetheless, on several occasions, non-mandatory referendums on crucial governmental concerns have now been initiated by regulating bodies in other words. legislatures or professionals. Such government-initiated referendums, which can be described as plebiscites, 3 a term that carries hookupdate.net/dabble-review/ a slight negative connotation, largely retain control of governmental decision-making in the possession of of elected officials.

Despite adding small to the entire rise 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 offered the directly to do this, political elites’ usage of direct democratic instruments is harder to understand. 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 governmental decision-making, and eventually expose themselves into the chance of losing during the ballot field? The main goal of this explorative research is to give potential responses to those concerns.