British Politics: Democracy - Do the advantages of referendums outweigh the disadvantages?

The last one!

Robyn, UK

Do the advantages of referendums outweigh the disadvantages?

Referendums are a device of direct democracy and are a popular vote on an issue of public policy. They are the most commonly used form of direct democracy today and are used to widen political participation. However, as the UK is a representative, not direct democracy, do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages?

As they are a device of direct democracy, referendums give the public direct and unmediated control over government decision-making. This means that the public vies and interests are properly and accurately given. It also means they cannot be changed or moulded to suit the politicians who represent the public.

However, the point of having politicians represent us is that they have political experience and knowledge to make correct and justified decisions. Referendums undermine the part of representative democracy as the general public is mainly badly informed, uneducated in politics and lack political experience. This means that although referendums give the public what they want, what the public want could be very bad for the country in the long term.

On the other hand, referendums could be the key to gaining the sufficient political knowledge and understanding. They widen the opportunities for political participation and create debate on particular issues which make the electorate better informed, more educated and more politically engaged. This means that the public have a stronger incentive to think and act politically.

There are advantages and disadvantages with referendums in terms of government as well as the public. Referendums can be considered to strengthen and extend government power. This is shown through the current major weakness in referendums: the government decide whether, when and over what issues to call referendums. This means that they could only call referendums on issues which they support and when they are confident of winning as well as that, governments can frame the questions asked. This defeats the purpose of referendums as the public opinion is moulded to be what the government want.

However this can overcome by establishing processes through which citizens can initiate referendums. The can also be considered to reduce government power. Referendums protect citizens from an over-mighty government as they provide a much needed check on government power. The government has less control over their outcome than it does over parliament. Parliament are elected to represent the public, so f the government are controlling parliament in a way which prevents them effectively representing society, then referendums can be used to make sure that public opinion is still counted.

Despite this, referendums also create an irresponsible government. They allow governments to slightly remove themselves from responsibility by handing decisions over to the electorate. In the UK’s representative democracy, we elect the governments to govern on our behalf, not for them to get us to do it.

I believe that although referendums educate the public well and widen political participation, they cause too many problems with the government. I think the disadvantages with government outweigh the advantages of public participation because the UK is a representative democracy. This means that the country is governed more by the elected government than the general publics opnion so advantages with government should be more important.