Political Theory by Andrew Heywood;Clayton Chin;

Author:Andrew Heywood;Clayton Chin;
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Bloomsbury UK (Major Textbooks)

Beyond these, there are a variety of mechanisms used to operationalize direct forms of democratic decision-making in contemporary democracies. The most obvious is the plebiscite or referendum, a popular vote on a specific issue that enables electors to make decisions directly. Referendums are widely used at every level in Switzerland, and are employed in many countries to ratify constitutional amendments. The frequency with which referendums have been used in the UK since the 1975 referendum on continued membership of the then European Community has convinced some that there is now a convention that major constitutional reforms should be endorsed through an affirmative vote in a referendum. A form of direct democracy has also survived in modern societies in the practice of selecting juries by lot or rota. Advocates of direct democracy further point out, often in vague terms, that the development of complex digital technology has opened broader possibilities for popular participation in government. The wide distribution of internet access and heavy saturation of smartphones and computers in the population allow for low-cost, and widely distributed decision-making. Critics, on the other hand, have a variety of claims against direct democracy. Some of these are about democracy itself, such as the criticism discussed below that most citizens cannot or do not want to participate adequately. Others stem from the liberal democratic perspective, including the influential idea that participatory democracy does not include enough checks on democratic power to prevent it being used against minorities. Interestingly, even participatory democrats are critical of some direct mechanisms. For example, Macpherson argued that referendums were abysmal decision-making procedures as it allowed an elite to formulate a question in a way designed to get a specific answer. ‘Somebody,’ as Macpherson (1977) said, ‘must ask the questions’.

The indirect or representative model of democracy is the major alternative to the direct model. In fact, it is the institutionally dominant form of institutionalizing democracy in the world. In this model, democratic government is mediated through professional politicians invested with the responsibility for making decisions on behalf of the people. This is an indirect form of democracy in the sense that popular participation is both infrequent and brief, reduced to the act of voting every few years (and perhaps a few other mechanisms). It is indirect in the sense that the public is removed from government: the public participates only through the choice of who should govern, and only rarely exercises power itself. Representative democracy may nevertheless qualify as a form of democracy because, however limited and ritualized it may appear, voting remains a vital source of popular power and a way for the views, preferences or interests of the people to impact on decisions. Quite simply, the public can express approval (of an existing government) or disapproval (through electing a competitor), a fact that ensures public accountability. Although representative democracy may not fully realize the classical goal of ‘government by the people’, it may nevertheless make possible a form of ‘government for the people’.

One of the most common theoretical

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