Why is it so
DIFFICULT for the sovereign electorate to get a
referendum?
Almost half of us in the UK agree that a
new nationwide referendum should be held, this time on the
terms for leaving the EU (survey reported January 2018).
Far fewer, only a third of those questioned, are against
the idea. In June 2017 a similar poll showed that a
majority of 53 percent were in favour and 47 percent
against holding a ballot on the "brexit" terms.
So, because a huge number of citizens, voters, want a
chance to re-consider and co-decide about "brexit" now
that we know more about it, then we will probably have a
referendum on this. won't we? By NO MEANS is this certain.
Why the uncertainty? Well, strange though it may seem,
only the prime minister and government (with a law waved
through by Parliament) can "allow" us to have a
referendum. This is a feature of our notorious "elective
dictatorship", a term which has been used to illustrate
that, having seized power in a general election, a United
Kingdom government can do anything it and its pals want to
do, until another election some years later. There is
little chance that the people and electorate, who in a
democracy are supposed to hold and own political power,
can effectively intervene to veto or modify government
policy or law-making. Should we despair? No! Because there
are ways to correct these deficits of public
participation, practical ways to enable stronger, more
citizen-led democracy.
Is democracy better in other places? From the
viewpoint of the "Demos", the People, citizens who wish to
take part in running our own ("public") affairs, and keep
tabs on politicians, there are some very useful
examples.
In some countries quite similar to ours the major
improvement over our UK democracy is that a very large
number of voters can refer a serious proposal to the whole
electorate and obtain a referendum-ballot, WITHOUT having
to beg the government to allow this. Examples:
New Zealand
To obtain a national referendum 10 percent of the
electorate must endorse the proposal. Time to collect
signatures: 12 months
Italy
For a referendum, half a million voters must endorse
the proposal with only three months to collect signatures
(challenging ...).
Netherlands
To obtain a referendum 300,000 citizens must demand
one, within six weeks. The procedure starts with an
initiative-proposition which must be supported by 10,000
voters.
United Kingdom
There is no official provision for citizen-led direct
democracy of the above sorts. There are proposals to
introduce it, for instance by the Joseph Rowntree funded
"Power Inquiry". They put forward a plan as follows:
Citizens' initiative and referendum
to be conducted in two stages 1. Initiative
(proposition) requires endorsement by one percent of
registered voters collected within a year. 2. If
parliament rejects the proposal, in order to obtain a
referendum a further one percent must endorse the
demand within 6 months.
Let's go for it! We keep
Parliament and government to do most of the work which
we pay them to do. In addition, by introducing some
"tools" of citizen-led direct democracy we the voters
can:
Veto bad or unwanted government laws,
actions or policy.
Change and make laws.
Make constitution such as a new way of
electing MPs and establish the right of many citizens
to launch a referendum.
Directly intervene if power appears out of
control e.g. the Conservative party with Theresa May
after the 2016 referendum, some "brexiteer"
politicians, ministers-apparently-gone-off-the-rails
such as Michael Gove... ;-)
More detail at this web site and on request:
Campaign for direct democracy in Britain
Citizens' Initiative and Referendum I&R ~ GB
http://www.iniref.org/
Link to site index
Contact: info@iniref.org