REVISTA DE CIENCIA POLГЌTICA / VOLUMEN 29/ NВ° http://onlinedatingsingles.net/mocospace-review/ 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 sobre las causas 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 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 event by delivering a regular theory on the factors that cause referendums. This explorative research aims at undertaking actions toward closing this space by concentrating on the precise form of facultative government-initiated referendums (FGIR) and their used in presidential systems. Using QC A (a technique that is case-sensitive in 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 quantities of celebration system fragmentation and divided federal government, for example. two facets which may have always been considered problematic within the context of presidential systems, while their obstruction is principally owed to your particular constitutional conditions regulating 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 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
From the 1960s onwards, various countries around the globe embraced the thought of direct democracy and within the last two years, the request of direct democratic instruments has grown significantly (LeDuc, 2003). 2 This trend has attracted scholarly attention and over modern times, considerable research investigating direct democracy was posted in celebrated journals in neuro-scientific governmental science. Thus far this literary works has primarily centered on the 2 nations that many usually utilize referendums, Switzerland in addition to united states of america in the continuing state level (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 wave 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 about the effect of referendums on politics as well as on diverse societal aspects. But, they usually have not yet produced a theory that is consistent the factors that cause referendums. The aim of this paper would be to undertake initial actions towards bridging this space.
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 happens to be welcomed by advocates of direct democracy who stress the possibility of the tools to foster bottom-up participation and vertical accountability (Barber, 1984; Schmitter, 2000). However, on a few occasions, non-mandatory referendums on essential governmental concerns have already been initiated by governing bodies in other words. legislatures or professionals. Such government-initiated referendums, which are generally described as plebiscites, 3 a phrase that holds a small connotation that is negative mostly retain control of political decision-making in the hands of elected officials.
Despite adding small to the entire escalation in direct democracy, the event of facultative government-initiated referendums (FGIR) 4 poses a theoretical puzzle (Rahat, 2007).
Even though it is understandable that residents will take part in processes of decision-making when provided the directly to do this, governmental elites’ utilization of direct democratic instruments is harder to grasp. What motivates regulating authorities to initiate referendums? Why should democratically legitimised representatives voluntarily provide up their monopoly to legislate, redistribute energy downwards, equal themselves with ordinary residents in political decision-making, and fundamentally expose by themselves to your danger of losing during the ballot box? The central purpose of this study that is explorative to give possible responses to those concerns.
