Referendums

• Referendums are a direct vote by citizens on a political issue. They are an example of direct democracy and contrast with the representative democracy that usually dominates politics in liberal democracies. Referendums do not have a long history in the UK. In fact, until 1975 there had not been a single nationwide referendum on any political issue
• An advisory referendum – This is a referendum which allows citizens to express their opinion, but it is not binding on the government – hence being called advisory. Technically, because of parliamentary sovereignty, all referendums in the UK are advisory. However, realistically most are politically binding. If a government were to offer the people to make a decision on an major issue and then ignore their verdict it would be politically suicidal.
• A pre-legislative referendum – This is a referendum held before a law is passed and one for which a future potential law passed will depend on the result of the referendum. Good examples of this are the Scottish Independence Referendum in 2014 and the EU Referendum in 2016. In 2014, had the population of Scotland voted to leave the UK then primary legislation would have had to have been passed to enable this. In the case of the EU Referendum, significant amounts of legislation, both primary and secondary, has had to been passed since 2016.
• A post-legislative referendum – This is a referendum held after a law is passed to confirm whether people are satisfied with it. A good example of a post-legislative referendum was the AV Referendum where a bill had been written and agreed and the referendum was the final stage in the process.
• European Union Referendum 2016 was a National Referendum which asked the question of whether Britain should remain or leave the EU. 51.9% of voters chose to leave the EU
• Scottish independence referendum 2014 was a devolved referendum which asked the question of whether Scotland should become independent from the rest of the United Kingdom. The majority (55%) voted against independence
• Scottish Independence Referendum 2014 was a Regional referendum which asked whether Scotland should remain in the UK. 55.3% of voters chose to remain in the UK
• Alternative Vote Referendum 2011 was a National Referendum which asked whether the Alternative Vote should replace First Past the Post for UK General Elections. 67.9% of voters chose to retain First Past the Post
• Welsh Assembly Legislative Powers Referendum 2011 was a regional referendum which asked the question of whether the Welsh Assembly should be given more legislative powers 63.5% of voters chose to increase the legislative powers of the Welsh Assembly.
• North East Assembly Referendum 2004 was a regional referendum which asked the question of whether the North-East of England should have its own devolved assembly.

  77.9% of voters chose to reject the establishment of a North-East Assembly
• Good Friday Agreement Referendum 1998 was a regional referendum which asked the question of whether the Good Friday agreement should be ratified. 71.1% of voters chose to ratify the Good Friday Agreement
• Greater London Authority Referendum 1998 was a regional referendum which asked the question of whether devolution should be granted to Greater London. 72% of of voters chose to establish a devolved system for London
• Welsh Devolution Referendum 1997 was a regional referendum which asked the question of whether devolution should be introduced to Wales. 50.3% of voters chose to devolve powers to Wales
• Scottish Devolution Referendum 1997 was a regional referendum which asked the question of whether devolution should be introduced to Scotland. 74.3% of voters chose to devolve powers to Scotland
• Welsh Devolution Referendum 1979 was a regional which asked whether devolution should be introduced to Wales.

  79.7% of voters chose to reject devolution to Wales
• Scottish Devolution Referendum 1979 was a regional referendum which asked whether devolution should be introduced to Scotland.

  51.6% of voters chose to devolve powers to Scotland. However, a clause in the bill said that 40% of the whole electorate had to vote yes and only 32.8%
• European Economic Community Referendum 1975 was a national referendum which asked whether Britain should remain or leave the EEC.

  67.2% of voters chose to remain in the EEC
• For what reasons might referendums be held?

  • To gain legitimacy for an important political or constitutional decision
  • To honour a political agreement
  • To confirm a transfer of powers
  • To confirm a decision taken by a previous Government
  • To please their own political supporters
  • As a response to the seeming public mood
• In the UK holding a referendum has to be legislated for by the Westminster Parliament. Constitutional issues are a reserved, not devolved, power. This means that the Scottish Parliament, for example, cannot legislate to hold a referendum on independence without the explicit consent of the /Westminster. Therefore, for an official referendum to be held, the Westminster Parliament have to agree to it. In reality, this almost always means that the Westminster Government will have to agree to it too.
• A referendum provides the opportunity to vote on a single-issue. The issue realistically has to be broken into a binary question. This makes the wording of the question essential. In Britain there has been an independent electoral commission since 2001. They have a number of important roles in regard to referendums.
• The independent electoral commission created in 2001 has a number of important roles in regard to referendums:

  • Setting rules for campaigning in the referendum including relating to spending.
  • Appointing the official campaign groups for each side of the debate.
  • Encouraging people to register to vote.
  • Investigating any wrongdoing relating to the referendum.
  • Agreeing the wording of the question.
• Advantages of referendums:

  • Referendums provide a check on 'elective dictatorship'
  • Referendums do a good job of raising public awareness of key issues
  • Referendums allow for a single issue to be addressed on its own merits
  • Referendums can settle long-standing and controversial issues
  • Referendums give an equal say to every voter
• Disadvantages of referendums:

  • Referendums can lead to emotionalised campaigns dominated by populism
  • Referendums have to reduce complex issues to simple questions
  • Referendums are held only at the discretion of the Government
  • Referendums can undermine representative democracy
  • Referendums can often be hijacked by other issues
  • Referendums give power to uneducated voters
  • Tyranny of the majority
• The Tyranny of the Majority refers to a situation in which the winning side can claim all of the authority. In a referendum there is one winning side and one losing side. This can mean large portions of the electorate feel dismissed. This can be seen in how Boris Johnson tried to approach Brexit upon becoming PM in July 2019 when he was willing (or at least appeared to be willing) to risk a No-Deal Brexit in the name of representing the 52% of the UK who voted to leave. It is worth noting that in terms of overall population that only 37% of the UK adult population actually voted for Brexit.
• There is a consistent danger that referendums, because of their binary nature, become dominated by wider political issues and not just the issue on the ballot paper. For example, in 2011, the AV Referendum largely became a referendum on performance of the Liberal Democrats in coalition, rather than a referendum on changes to the voting system itself.
• Referendums can challenge parliamentary sovereignty and representative democracy. At elections, voters elected representatives to take difficult decisions on their behalf. This is because electors lack the expertise to vote on complicated issues like Brexit. The overuse of referendums can undermine the fabric of representative democracy. Once people have had a referendum on one issue, they begin to expect it for more issues – even if that issue is not well suited to be settled by a referendum. There is therefore a danger of ‘neverendums’.
• By necessity, referendums simplify incredibly complex issues. For example, British voters were given a choice in 2016 on whether to stay in or leave the European Union. However, there was little discussion on what leaving would mean and how Britain might leave the EU. In the view of many, the referendum created more political issues than it solved. This can perhaps be seen by the four years of political turmoil after the referendum surrounding how Britain should actually withdraw from the EU.
• become dominated by populism. Because referendums are often held on complex issues, it is easy for populism to take hold. The levels of populism were a key criticism of the EU referendum in 2016 where both sides were accused of poor campaigning and misuse of facts and figures.
• Referendums are a direct vote by citizens on a political issue. They are an example of direct democracy and contrast with the representative democracy that usually dominates politics in liberal democracies.
• Referendums are a direct vote by citizens on a political issue. They are an example of direct democracy and contrast with the representative democracy that usually dominates politics in liberal democracies. Referendums do not have a long history in the UK. In fact, until 1975 there had not been a single nationwide referendum on any political issue. Many prominent figures in British Politics had openly spoken out about the potential use of referendums in the UK
• An advisory referendum

   – This is a referendum which allows citizens to express their opinion, but it is not binding on the government – hence being called advisory. Technically, because of parliamentary sovereignty, all referendums in the UK are advisory. However, realistically most are politically binding. If a government were to offer the people to make a decision on an major issue and then ignore their verdict it would be politically suicidal.
• A pre-legislative referendum 

  – a referendum held before a law is passed and one for which a future potential law passed will depend on the result of the referendum. Scottish Independence Referendum in 2014 and the EU Referendum in 2016. In 2014, had the population of Scotland voted to leave the UK then primary legislation would have had to have been passed to enable this. In the case of the EU Referendum, significant amounts of legislation, both primary and secondary, has had to been passed since 2016. For example, the EU Withdrawal Act (2018) repealed the European Communities Act (1973).
• A post-legislative referendum 

  – This is a referendum held after a law is passed to confirm whether people are satisfied with it. A good example of a post-legislative referendum was the AV Referendum where a bill had been written and agreed and the referendum was the final stage in the process.
• The Eu Referendum 2016 was a national referendum which asked whether Britain should leave or remain in the EU. 51.9% voted to leave