Direct democracy in the constitution: good or bad for democracy?. (2nd January 2023)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: But, J. J.; Jongkind, D. K.; Voermans, W. J. M.
• Is Part Of: Theory and practice of legislation. Volume 11:Number 1(2023)
• Page Start: 52
• Page End: 82
• Publication Date: 2023-01-02
• Subjects: Direct democracy -- constitution -- referendum -- citizen legislative initiative -- democratic deficit -- empirical legal studies; Legislation -- Periodicals; 340.1
• DOI: 10.1080/20508840.2022.2131150
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2050-8840

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Concerns about democratic decline and deficit have recently led to repeated calls for institutional changes that could enhance civil participation and direct voter participation in public decision-making (forms of direct democracy). An evergreen among the instruments proposed is the referendum, and in particular the constitutionally embedded referendum. This would grant a constitutional right to trigger a referendum and is something that is currently under consideration in the Netherlands. It is often assumed that constitutionally embedded referendums can correct systemic flaws in a representative democratic system, thus enhancing the overall democratic score of a country. This contribution considers these premises. By means of an empirical study, it examines whether the democracy index score of a country is related to constitutionally ratified rights to direct legislative influence of citizens, such as referendums and legislative initiatives by citizens. The initial results indicate that codifying referendum procedures as a constitutional right does indeed positively relate to the democratic scores of countries worldwide. This effect, however, does not hold true for the sample of EU countries studied.