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

The Application 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 is a considerable escalation in the sheer number of referendums global. The literature that is existing direct democracy has thus far neglected to explain this occurrence by delivering a frequent concept in the factors behind referendums. This explorative study aims at undertaking actions toward closing this gap by concentrating on the precise form of facultative government-initiated referendums (FGIR) and their use within presidential systems. Using QC A (a case-sensitive technique based from the formal logic of Boolean algebra), this research methodically compares the governmental possibility structures of 49 presidential systems from 12 Latin US nations to detect the factors that spurred or obstructed the incident of FGIR. It concludes that FGIR are closely connected to high degrees of celebration system fragmentation and split federal government, in other words. two factors that have for ages been considered problematic within the context of presidential systems, while their obstruction is especially owed into the particular provisions that are constitutional 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 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 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, dos factores que han sido problemГЎticos en los contextos de sistemas presidenciales. Por su parte, la se that is obstrucciГіn 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 literary works has mainly centered on the 2 nations that many usually use referendums, Switzerland in addition to united states of america in the continuing state degree (Ladner and Brandle, 1999; Gerber, 1996; Papadopulos, 2001; Tolbert and Hero, 1996; Vatter and Freitag, 2006), while a smaller sized quantity of magazines have centered on the revolution of referendums entailed in the process of European integration (Hug and Sciarini, 2000; Franklin et ah, 1995). These magazines have significantly added to your knowledge in connection with effect of referendums on politics as well as on diverse societal aspects. Nonetheless, they usually have not yet produced a theory that is consistent the factors behind referendums. The goal of this paper would be to undertake steps that are initial bridging this space.

Up To a big degree, the ‘boom’ in direct democracy may be credited toward the increased quantity of citizen-initiated referendums and, to a smaller level, mandatory referendums (Morel, 2001) This development happens to be welcomed by advocates of direct democracy whom stress the possibility of those tools to foster bottom-up participation and straight accountability (Barber, 1984; Schmitter, 2000). However, on a few 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 are generally known as plebiscites, 3 a phrase that holds a small connotation that is negative mostly retain control of governmental decision-making in the hands of elected officials.

Despite contributing small to the general upsurge 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 start referendums? Why should democratically legitimised representatives voluntarily offer their monopoly up to legislate, redistribute energy downwards, equal themselves with ordinary residents in governmental decision-making, and fundamentally expose by themselves to your danger of losing during the ballot package? The central goal of this study that is explorative to give you possible responses to those concerns.