The Referendun1

Abstract The referendum is a sort of halfway house between a pure form of direct democracy in which the citizens assemble and discuss the issues before taking a direct vote on them, and representative democracy in which the citizen ‘s direct participation is limited to going to the polls and casting a ballot for one ‘s preferred candidates. As in the latter, the citizen goes to the polls and casts a ballot, but in a referendum the ballots cast decide the issue directly. Voting is on issues, not candidates. Not surprisingly, the arguments brought forward for and against the referendum are a mixture of those employed in debate over direct versus representative democracy.