Download or read book Referendums are Dangerous written by Ross Harper and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Government by Referendum written by Matt Qvortrup and published by Pocket Politics. This book was released on 2018 with total page 99 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A perfect primer for anyone interested in the politics of referendums.
Download or read book A Comparative Study of Referendums written by Mads Qvortrup and published by Manchester University Press. This book was released on 2005-10-07 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Combining an account of the political history and philosophy of the referendum, with a thorough assessment of the practical experiences with referendums in western democracies, this book has established itself as the unrivalled market-leader in the field. Fully revised and with new chapters on campaign spending and the administration of referendums, the second edition of this book provides a thorough overview of the theory and practice of referendums.
Download or read book Let the People Rule written by John G. Matsusaka and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-02-25 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Against Elections written by David Van Reybrouck and published by Seven Stories Press. This book was released on 2018-04-17 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A small book with great weight and urgency to it, this is both a history of democracy and a clarion call for change. "Without drastic adjustment, this system cannot last much longer," writes Van Reybrouck, regarded today as one of Europe's most astute thinkers. "If you look at the decline in voter turnout and party membership, and at the way politicians are held in contempt, if you look at how difficult it is to form governments, how little they can do and how harshly they are punished for it, if you look at how quickly populism, technocracy and anti-parliamentarianism are rising, if you look at how more and more citizens are longing for participation and how quickly that desire can tip over into frustration, then you realize we are up to our necks." Not so very long ago, the great battles of democracy were fought for the right to vote. Now, Van Reybrouck writes, "it's all about the right to speak, but in essence it's the same battle, the battle for political emancipation and for democratic participation. We must decolonize democracy. We must democratize democracy." As history, Van Reybrouck makes the compelling argument that modern democracy was designed as much to preserve the rights of the powerful and keep the masses in line, as to give the populace a voice. As change-agent, Against Elections makes the argument that there are forms of government, what he terms sortitive or deliberative democracy, that are beginning to be practiced around the world, and can be the remedy we seek. In Iceland, for example, deliberative democracy was used to write the new constitution. A group of people were chosen by lot, educated in the subject at hand, and then were able to decide what was best, arguably, far better than politicians would have. A fascinating, and workable idea has led to a timely book to remind us that our system of government is a flexible instrument, one that the people have the power to change.
Download or read book The Referendum in Britain written by Lucy Atkinson and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2020-11-29 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The European Union referendum of 23 June 2016 proved to be the trigger for the most prolonged period of political turbulence in the peacetime history of the UK; leading to major policy changes and realignments in the party-political system. This book considers from an historical perspective the democratic device that provided the focus for this upheaval. Beginning in the late nineteenth century, it discusses how the idea of using referendums to resolve major political disputes first came onto the agenda, and why. It considers who advocated it, and in what circumstances. The book describes how referendums eventually came into use from the 1970s onwards, and the different patterns in their deployment in the decades that have followed. Major political figures, from Herbert Henry Asquith and Winston Churchill to Clement Attlee, Harold Wilson and Margaret Thatcher; to Tony Blair, David Cameron, and Boris Johnson form part of the story. Governments have come to power and fallen in the context of demands for referendums or the results they produced. The authors provide detailed accounts of each of the 13 major referendums that have taken place. Referendums took place at UK and sub-UK level. They were held on the position of Northern Ireland (1973) and Scotland (2014) within the UK; on devolution to Wales (1979; 1997; 2011) and Scotland (1979; 1979); on the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement (1998); on devolution to London (1998) and North East England (2004); on the parliamentary voting system (2011); and on UK participation in European integration (1975; 1975). The book provides a constitutional and international perspective, and ask how far the original ideas lying behind the referendum were fulfilled in practice.
Download or read book Yes to Europe written by Robert Saunders and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-03-15 with total page 525 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first modern history of the 1975 European referendum, ranging across 1970s Britain to assess why voters said 'Yes to Europe'.
Download or read book The Strategic Use of Referendums written by M. Walker and published by Springer. This book was released on 2003-08-02 with total page 167 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The strategic use of referendums by leaders often confers legitimacy but it may also reflect the power struggle between leaders, groups, and institutions and in doing so not provide a democratic result for the citizenry of a country.
Download or read book The Routledge Handbook to Referendums and Direct Democracy written by Laurence Morel and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-12-12 with total page 674 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the last 30 years referendums have played an increasingly important role in determining government policy. Recent high profile referendums in Scotland, Catalonia and Ukraine have continued the movement towards independence referendums following decolonization and the end of the Cold War. The Greek bailout referendum and Britain’s vote on membership of the EU reflect a tradition of European states giving their people a direct say in the transfer of sovereign powers to the European Union seen through the ratification of key treaties such as Maastricht, Amsterdam, Nice and Lisbon. This Routledge Handbook covers key aspects and issues of direct democracy and referendums throughout the world including: •their history; •when, why, where, how and on which issues referendums are held; •why some referendums are more democratic than others; •how referendums are won; •whether they produce good policies; •if referendums increase participation and improve the quality of representative democracies; •do referendums increase trust in democracy and the political actors; •the impact of new technology on the possibilities, methods and frequency of direct public political participation; •how they should be regulated. Covering other related areas such as recall, citizen juries and random selection, this compendium is an indispensable guide to referendums and the workings of modern democracy.
Download or read book Referendums Around the World written by Matt Qvortrup and published by Springer. This book was released on 2014-05-05 with total page 395 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Surveying all referendums around the world since 1793, Dr Qvortrup and contributors provide a thorough account of why and when citizens have been asked to vote on policy issues. Referendums Around the World is essential reading for political scientists and others interested in direct democracy as well as representative government.
Download or read book The Limits and Legitimacy of Referendums written by Richard Albert and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2022-04-25 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The possibility of democracy-enhancing uses and anti-democratic abuses of referendums reveals a paradox: mechanisms of democracy can be exploited to do violence to the basic principles of democracy. The Limits and Legitimacy of Referendums seeks to identify standards we might use to assess the democratic legitimacy of a referendum when we cannot rely on the norms of traditional liberal democracy. This innovative book explores how referendums manage the tension between liberalism and democracy, and whether this device holds promise for reconciling these two commitments. A range of scholars from around the world expose how referendums may be abused on one hand to achieve short-term political or even personal gains, and how, on the other, they may aspire to reflect the best traditions of deliberative, innovative, democracy-enhancing popular decision-making. Structured around three big questions, this book seeks to identify what makes a referendum legitimate. First, why have referendums on issues of fundamental political importance become so frequent around the world? Second, who are - or who should be - the people that make decisions about a political community's future? And third, are referendums an effective and reliable mechanism of popular sovereignty or democratic choice? These essays - written for scholars, public lawyers, political actors and citizens - bring together diverse perspectives on referendums, constitutionalism, liberalism and democracy in ways that challenge the conventional wisdom, prompt new answers to enduring questions, and urge reconsideration of how we evaluate the legitimacy of referendums.
Download or read book Framing the European Union written by Ece Özlem Atikcan and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2015-10-09 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This accessible study explores the impact of political language and campaigning upon public opinion towards European integration.
Download or read book The Palgrave Handbook of European Referendums written by Julie Smith and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-03-02 with total page 736 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Referendum Democracy written by M. Mendelsohn and published by Springer. This book was released on 2001-09-25 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the referendum becomes a more regular component of decision making, it leaves few, if any, institutions, processes and values of democracy untouched. Political actors of all kinds - including political parties and interest groups - seek to use the referendum device to further their own objectives. The end result is a different kind of democracy than existed before. This book lays out the comparative research agenda on the impact of referendums on the practice of liberal democracy.
Download or read book Referendums in the United Kingdom written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Lords. Select Committee on the Constitution and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2010 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Citizenship and Contemporary Direct Democracy written by David Altman and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2019 with total page 283 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Offers a comparative study of the origins, performance, and reform of contemporary mechanisms of direct democracy.
Download or read book The Bad Boys of Brexit written by Arron Banks and published by Biteback Publishing. This book was released on 2016-10-31 with total page 406 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: FULLY UPDATED Arron Banks enjoyed a life of happy anonymity flogging car insurance in Bristol until he dipped his toes into the sharkinfested waters of politics and decided to plunge right in. Charging into battle for Brexit, he tore up the political rule book, sinking £8 million of his personal fortune into a mad-cap campaign targeting ordinary voters up and down the country. His anti-establishment crusade upset everyone from Victoria Beckham to NASA and left MPs open-mouthed. Lurching from comedy to crisis (often several times a day), he found himself in the glare of the media spotlight, fending off daily bollockings from Nigel Farage and po-faced MPs. From talking Brexit with Trump and trying not to embarrass the Queen, to courting communists and wasting a fortune on a pop concert that descended into farce, this is his honest, uncensored and highly entertaining diary of the campaign that changed the course of history.
