REFERENDUM (Social Science)

A referendum is a form of direct democracy in which the entire electorate votes to accept or reject a policy proposal. Nearly all democracies in the international community provide for national referendums. Yet there is no provision in the U.S. Constitution for one. The Tenth Amendment implies that referendums are left up to the states. Because of this, states decide individually whether to allow referendums and how they are to proceed.

In the United States a legislative referendum is an election in which the state legislature passes a bill for consideration by a state’s voters for final adoption. Not all states have a legislative referendum provision for nonconstitutional issues, even though all states except Delaware allow or require constitutional amendments to be approved through referendums. Some states allow for voters to overrule legislation by referendum, so long as supporters gather a requisite number of signatures. This is known as the popular referendum. Twenty-four states (mostly in the American West) and myriad local governments provide for legislative and popular referendums. Referendums are similar to but conceptually distinct from initiatives. Although similar in that the people have the final say to support or oppose a policy and citizens groups may be required to gather signatures for both referendums and initiatives, referendums are a direct response to action by the legislature. Conversely, citizens, citizens groups, or other interest groups initiate the policy proposal to be placed on an election ballot.


REFERENDUMS AS PROGRESSIVE REFORMS

The history and initiation of referendums in the United States is a product of the progressive reforms. In response to the political corruption of party machines in urban areas throughout the United States, the Progressives pushed numerous reforms to depoliticize politics.

Progressive reforms began with the creation of the federal civil service system with the Pendleton Act of 1883. They also included state-printed secret ballots, direct primary elections, nonpartisan elections, and initiatives, recalls, and referendums. The goal of these reforms was to wrest political control away from centralized and strong political parties and return democracy to the people. Although they had their intended effect of weakening political parties, they also contributed to a significant decline in voter participation over time. Even directly deciding policy through referendums is typically not sufficient to mobilize high voter turnout.

States vary in their use of referendum. For legislative, nonconstitutional referendums, California requires that the measure, with valid signatures equal in number to 5 percent of all votes cast in the previous gubernatorial contest, be presented to the secretary of state within ninety days after its enactment by the state legislature. The secretary of state then submits the referendum for placement on the ballot in the next general or special election, or the governor may request a special election. California’s procedure for legislative referendum is fairly typical of most other states. California used the legislative referendum process in 2000 to pass Proposition 22, which held that only heterosexual marriages were legally valid in the state. Citizens in the state of South Dakota relied on a popular referendum to overturn, or veto, a 2006 state law that would have banned abortion except to protect the life of the mother. Citizens were required to gather over 18,000 valid signatures (or 5 percent of votes cast in the previous gubernatorial race) to place this popular referendum on the November 2006 ballot. Texas state law requires that any amendment to the Texas Constitution be approved by two-thirds of both houses of the state legislature and then placed on an election ballot for final adoption by the voters. In November 2005 Texas amended its constitution in this manner by defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman. All states may place advisory or non-binding referendums on an election ballot. These referendums have no binding policy effect but instead are consultative referendums initiated by the government, perhaps, to poll the electorate as to their general belief on an issue. It is ultimately up to the state legislature whether to embrace or ignore these results.

CONSEQUENCES OF REFERENDUMS

Although the goal of referendums and other forms of direct democracy is to allow people to decide policy, there may be unintended consequences for some of the people as a result of these popular initiatives. James Madison (1751-1836), fourth president of the United States, warned about the deleterious effects of factions, that majority will—if left unchecked—could actually punish the minority, creating a "tyranny of the majority." For these and other reasons, the framers of the U.S. Constitution adopted a document that was exceedingly thin on direct democratic provisions but instead provided for representative democracy.

With the institution and proliferation of forms of direct democracy as a policy tool in the late twentieth century, scholars began to explore the consequences of direct democracy and whether or not referendums or initiatives actually harm minorities. Barbara Gamble found in her 1997 article "Putting Civil Rights to a Popular Vote," for instance, that local and state ballot measures (referendum included) typically harm minorities, and she concluded that representative democracy protects minorities better than direct democracy does. Todd Donovan and Shaun Bowler showed in their 1998 article "Direct Democracy and Minority Rights: An Extension," on the other hand, that direct democracy is not necessarily harmful to minorities. Instead, largely populated areas with well-educated citizens tend to adopt ballot measures that actually protect homosexuals. Donovan and Bowler concluded that both direct and representative democracies have comparable limitations in protecting specific minority groups.

The claim that referendums reflect the popular will of the majority or that they provide for direct democracy in the truest sense is open to question for several reasons. First, as with most other elections, only a small and self-selected percentage of the voting public participates in referendum elections. Constitutional amendments that must be approved of through referendum may be placed on the ballot during special elections, not associated with either statewide or nationally elected office. The skew in voter participation for these referendums is likely to be especially pronounced. Moreover many of these referendums may pertain to mundane matters, such as issuing bonds for economic development or pollution control, which are not of interest to many voters. Second, large states, like California and Texas, may have too many referendums on an election ballot, which may cause voters to roll off, or not finish the ballot, actually reducing the proportion of voters who participate. Indeed the 2006 midterm election ballot used in several California counties was over 120 pages long. Third, referendums may be worded in a confusing fashion, with a "yes" vote supporting change in one referendum and a "no" vote supporting change in another. Fourth, voters may make policy based on a whim, not careful research, leading to ineffective or countereffective policies. Finally, government accountability may be reduced if citizens—not their elected representatives—are responsible for making public policy.

Unlike the United States, referendums are more central to governance in many other democracies, with numerous states relying extensively on national referendums for policy making. Switzerland’s referendum process is central to policy making, whether for constitutional amendments, legislative enactments, or according to Lawrence LeDuc in his 2003 book The Politics of Direct Democracy: Referendums in a Global Perspective, "rejective" referendums. It does not have a nonbinding or advisory referendum provision. Although Sweden provides for both binding and nonbinding referendums, most of its late-twentieth-century referendums were advisory to the legislature. Other countries use the referendum process to approve constitutional amendments (France), vote on independence (Puerto Rico), recall politicians from office (Venezuela), determine public policy directly (Brazil), or decide European Union membership (United Kingdom).

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