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Scientific article
OA Policy
English

Some Thoughts about Referendums, Representative Democracy and Separation of Powers

Contributors

Hug, Simon

Published in

Constitutional political economy, vol. 20, no. 3/4, p. 251-266

Collection

  • Open Access - Licence nationale Springer

Publication date

2009

Abstract

Referendums have experienced some sort of a comeback. Citizen involvement in political decisions is seen increasingly as a healthy add-on in democratic polities. While earlier writers on democratic theory often saw a danger in increased participation of citizens, more recently several authors suggest that this participation should be fostered. I argue in this paper that both sides in the debate neglect important aspects of referendums. Discussing whether direct participation by the citizens is a good or bad thing addresses only half the story. More precisely, we have to get a better idea about how referendums interact with the traditional institutions of representative democracy.

Keywords

  • Referendums
  • Representative democracy
  • Separation of powers

UNIGE affiliation entities

Citation (ISO format)

HUG, Simon. Some Thoughts about Referendums, Representative Democracy and Separation of Powers. In: Constitutional political economy, 2009, vol. 20, n° 3/4, p. 251–266. doi: 10.1007/s10602-008-9065-1

Main files (1)

Article (Published version)
OA NATIONAL

Identifiers

Additional URL for this publication

http://www.springerlink.com/content/v7u251401539385l/fulltext.pdf

Journal ISSN

1043-4062
928views
791downloads

Technical informations

Creation

30/10/2009 16:29:00

First validation

30/10/2009 16:29:00

Update

14/03/2023 15:17:44

Status update

14/03/2023 15:17:44

Last indexation

29/10/2024 12:34:36
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