what are referendums?
A vote on a single issue put to a public ballot by the government. It is an example of direct democracy in a representative system
Discuss referendums
- there are no constitutional mechanisms requiring a PM to call a referendum
- they are called at the discretion of parliament
- they don’t have legal force and are approved by parliament so they still have legal/ parliamentary sovereignty
- it is unlikely that the government will ignore the decisions made by the people
- in some instances referendums are purely advisory such as the EU referendum where parliament had to take action following the referendum to implement the result
- in other instances such as the alternative vote referendum the law passed to instigate the referendum included provision of the results immediate implementation following the referendum
Explore the history of referendums in 1997
- Only since 2010 has there been wide use of referendums
- an example of this would be the 2011 Alternative voting system which concerned whether the current FPTP electoral system should be replaced
- 67.9% opposed changing the electoral system and turnout was 42.0%
- 2016 Brexit referendum should Britain remain in the EU 52% voted yes and 48% voted no
Discuss referendums in Scotland, Wales and NI
- The Scottish devolution referendum ‘should there be a Scottish parliament ‘ - 74.29% voted that there should be
- 1997 Welsh devolution referendums: ‘should there be a Welsh assembly?’ 50.3% voted yes and 49.70% voted no
- 2011 further devolution referendum ‘should the welsh assembly have primary legislative powers?’ 63.5% voted yes
- 2014 Scottish independence referendum ‘should Scotland be an independent country?’ 44.70% said yes and 55.30% said no
Discuss local elections
- 1998 Greater London referendum asking whether there was support for the creation of a Greater London Authority, composed of a directly elected Mayor of London and a London Assembly to scrutinise the Mayor’s actions. 72.01% said yes and 27.99% said no.
- Edinbruh congestion charge in 2005
Discuss a key case study
2011 Alternative vote referendum:
- held after it was a provision of the Conservative/labour coalition
- Lib Dem’s, SNP, Plaid Cmyru and smaller parties campaigned yes
- labour had no official party position
- conservatives and DUP campaigned No
- 68% voted no on a 42.4% turnout
- majority of press including most right wing supported no whereas daily mirror, Financial Times and independent supported yes
- yes campaign argued they were supporting the public
- no campaign used the fact that the Lib Dem’s were unpopular
Discuss another case study
2016 Brexit referendum
- held in June 2016 after Conservative Party had made holding it a manifestos in the 2015 election
- election was called in response to the growing popularity of UKIP and Nigel Farrage who was apart of the pressure of a referendum in the late 2000s
- Brexit supporting UKIP won 26.6% of the vote and was the largest party in the European Parliament election
- the remain campaign was backed by Cameron and majority of the Labour Party led by the mantra ‘Britain stronger in Europe’
- 52% voted leave and 48% voted stay
- following the referendum Cameron resigned and the party was replaced with Theresea May
- Brexit defined politics with a strong second referendum movement in 2019 with the 2019 general election resolving the issue of Brexit
Why have referendums been held?
- to give legitimacy to key constitutional changes this is due to the fact that they are unlikely to be changed
- major development such as devolution included referendums and local referendums give legitimacy to government initiatives
- party motivations may also be why referendums are held
- for example if a party has major internal disagreements a referendum can be held
- this can be seen in the 1975 referendum on EEC membership and the Brexit referendum
- pressure from public and parliament: Cameron did not initially want to hold a referendum. However public demand increased
Intro
What are referendums
Use a current example of referendums
State your arguments
End with what you will mostly be arguing for
Paragraph one:
P: referendums have the opportunity to educate the electorate about modern day issues. Recent referendums have proven to have high turnout that other votes
E: the 2016 EU referendum has received a turnout of 72.2% of votes and the Scottish independence vote seeing a 84% turnout. When comparing this to other votes such as the 2015 general election where turnout was 66.1% or the Scottish parliament election where turnout was 55.6%
E: this is only beneficial to the fact that referendums are a form of direct democracy, this shows how referendums are crucial for engaging in political issues as it adds to developmental democracy as this increases political engagement which leads to widespread issues being challenged in politics
CP: although there is high turnout it can often lead to tyranny of the majority as this is a form of direct democracy
E: for example, Brexit referendum meant that 48% of people were underrepresented despite the high turnout rate
E: suggests that although political engagement and education may lead to high turnout rate a large number of people are underrepresented
Paragraph two:
P: a form of direct democracy as it interferes with parliamentary sovereignty and representative democracy
E: this can be seen with the EU referendum where the vast majority of parliament supported remain whilst the majority of the electorate wanted to leave this led to complications in the passage of Brexit through parliament following the vote. Delayed Brexit until 2019, tensions within the political party which led to a vote of no confidence and resignation . Shows that referendums have a profound impact on political life and undermines the running of the country. / government. 2016 electoral commission reported that the arguments used by leaders in the 2016 referendum includes distortion and that there should be greater effort from people to prevent and ensure that people receive a fair election . This shows that people can be swayed
CP: referendums can give legitimacy to key reforms and entrenched for example the Good Friday agreement this isn’t to say that they cannot be reversed but they have public support and this would spark major debate.
E: suggests that it does have positive on impact on the government by increasing legitimacy due to the number of voters
Discuss your final paragraph
P: Referendums are often held for political party purposes
E: for example the alternative vote system which was a result of party conflict due to the 2010 coalition
E: could be argued that this can be seen as damaging to democracy as referendums are called for party interests rather than for public interests
CP: there has been instances where referendums have been called for public interest such as the EU referendum which was a result of public demand. Cameron tried to delay this and was in favour of remaining however public demand from the electorate and UKIP lead to the referendum
E: suggests that referendums aren’t always dependent on the party motivations
