Quote:
Originally Posted by carpetmojo
Rizla, sorry to be a pedant, but "referendum" is a form of "direct" democracy (i.e. Switzerland) where those permitted to, vote on political measures directly, whereas in a "representational" democracy ( US, UK, most of Europe) those permitted to vote, do so to elect pepresentatives that determine political measures for them.
[ I just happened to have done some research on government by referenda in the past.....  ] |
A referendum is a direct vote by the population on a specific issue. It is not only Switzerland that have them, they aren't popular but neither are they uncommon in other European countries. It is usually on issues that aren't ideologically divisive, like moving from driving on the left side of the road to the right side like most of the world (Sweden 1966 [Swedes preferred the left side but the government ignored the result of the referendum since they are consultative]), a lot of countries had referendums about joining the Euro currency, or joining the EU or the new EU constitution.
In the US referendums are fairly common on state level, usually as a result of some popular grass roots movement. The closer a voter is to an issue the higher the vested interest. The advantage of a referendum is that once it has been decided implementation will be swift,