Originally published 11 November 2007. This article is retained from the tCI archive. Law, policy or practice may have changed since publication.
Direct democracy has many enthusiastic fans.
They point out that some questions are just too important for elected representatives to decide; constitutional changes are often cited as classic issues of this kind, and the current call for a Referendum on the latest European treaty just reflects some people’s views that it contains proposals whose significance are profound and far reaching.
Another argument is that referenda confer a greater legitimacy for major change. Devolution for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland was meant to respond to the will of the people, and a plebiscite is the accepted way to measure it; Alex Salmond’s recently published options for further change assumes another referendum if it is to secure the consent of the Scottish people. In this as in other cases, supporters of referenda claim it enhances the quality and inclusiveness of debate, and helps the electorate address difficult issues. But not everyone is so keen. So much depends upon the question; turnouts can be unpredictable; a referendum ostensibly about one subject can easily become a vote about something else. And what’s the point of electing representatives if then we absolve them of the responsibility to take those tough decisions on our behalf?
Many US states have a provision for propositions to be initiated by the public, and the lobbying industry in California and elsewhere uses this as a major device both to influence the political agenda as well as to win an argument. For some this is the ultimate form of public engagement and a way for the public to force through radical policies on issues such as climate change; for others it is a right-wing tool to preserve the status-quo; on this there is no consensus!
Right now our own political leaders are talking the language of greater public involvement, and it may be time to consider whether, on a smaller scale, our own towns and cities should be obliged to organise a full vote of residents on issues that really matter. Should Londoners have had a vote on the Olympics – or the congestion charge? Should major changes in other parts of the country be voted upon? Councils can already initiate a referendum – but they cannot be forced to do so just by citizen power. Last year a private members bill that would commit them to do so if 10% of the electorate demanded it got nowhere. Yet the community call for action and other ideas all point towards strengthening the hands of residents vis-a-vis those who serve them.
Alongside this debate we need to look carefully at what’s happening in the world of e-voting, and the trend away from the traditional hard-copy ballot paper in the physical polling station. We may well row back from some of the new alternative experiments of recent years, and electronic counting of votes appears to have had a bad year! But there is little doubt that we will increasingly rely on internet voting in some guise or another.
This is especially true for referenda of memberships. Associations large and small will increasingly seek the views of their mass membership; for more specialised questions, they may create representative panels and use new technology to let them vote. Will public bodies not behave very similarly?
What’s common to all this discussion is that it is becoming easier to conduct referenda, and whilst this detracts little from the long-standing critiques of direct democracy, history shows that the possible often becomes the popular, so those with an interest in public engagement should certainly watch this space.
Trigger points
- Encourage go-ahead Councils to consider referenda for major local issues
- Look at the Electoral Commission’s website (http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/) for a comprehensive set of reports on recent electoral experiments involving new technology
- Widen your awareness of new technology developments in forthcoming Institute events:- Technologies for Participation Third Annual Panels event
This is the93rd Tuesday Topic; a full list of subjects covered is available for Institute members and is a valuable resource covering so many aspects of consultation and engagement