Electoral Systems- The Case For And Against Referendums Flashcards
Arguments for ®️
®️ purest form of democracy
®️ help unite divided society
®️can solve conflicts
®️consent of ppl
®️informed decisions
Arguments against ®️
®️ issues may be too complex
®️ can cause divisions
®️undermine authority of rep democracy
®️ tyranny of majority
®️voters may be swayed by emotion appeals
®️some qs more complicated than yes or no q
Arguments for ®️
®️ purest form of democracy
Referendums are the purest form of democracy, uncorrupted by the filter of representative democracy. They demonstrate the pure will of the people, as shown in the EU vote. They are a direct expression of popular consent.
Arguments for ®️
®️ help unite divided society
Referendums can help to unite a divided society, as occurred with the decisive result of the 1998 vote on the Belfast Agreement.
Arguments for ®️
®️can solve conflicts
Referendums can solve conflicts within the government and the rest of the political system.
This was especially the case with the EU referendums in both 1975 and 2016.
Arguments for ®️
®️consent of ppl
Referendums are particularly useful when the expressed (as opposed to implied) consent of the people is important, so that the decision will be respected. This was very true of the votes on devolution in 1997.
Arguments for ®️
®️informed decisions
People have access to many sources of information and can use this to make more informed decisions than they could in the past.
Arguments against ®️
®️ issue may be too complex
The issue may be too complex for people to comprehend. The electoral system, which was the subject of the 2011 referendum, was difficult for voters to understand.
Arguments against ®️
®️can cause divisions
Referendums are designed to heal divisions but can sometimes cause them. The EU referendum exposed deepened divides between nations (Scotland voted to remain while England voted to leave) and between age groups (only 27% of 18-24-year-olds voted to leave the EU compared to 60% of people aged 65+). There was also an increase in racial tension, with police forces reporting rises in race-related hate crimes following the referendum.
Arguments against ®️
®️undermine authority of rep democracy
Excessive use of referendums may undermine the authority of representative democracy, which has been a particular danger in some states in the USA. In California, a number of referendums have prevented lawmakers from raising taxes which has resulted in frequent budget crises. If similar referendums were held in the UK, they would likely have the same effect.
Arguments against ®️
®️ tyranny of majority
A referendum can represent the ‘tyranny of the majority’. This means that the majority that wins the vote can use their victory to force the minority to accept a change that is against their interests. The scots, Northern Irish and Londoners, who voted strongly to stay in the EU in 2016, claimed they were being tyrannised by the English majority.
Arguments against ®️
®️voters may be swayed by emotion appeals
Voters may be swayed by emotional rather than rational appeals.
They may also be influenced by false information. In the EU referendum in 2016, the Leave campaign claimed that withdrawing from the EU would result in a saving of £350 million per week which could be spent on the NHS.
Arguments against ®️
®️some qs more complicated than yes or no q
Some questions should not be reduced to a simple Yes/No answer; they are more complicated.
Arguments against ®️
