Why and How Referendums Enrich Democracy

WHY AND HOW REFERENDUMS ENRICH DEMOCRACY

The earliest forms of democracy were based on direct participation from the citizens, and this was often carried out by organising referendums wherein each of the citizens had a vote regarding the implementation of policy. Although this system was not without its faults, it did ensure the concept of Ð'ÐŽÐ'Ґmajority ruleÐ'ÐŽÐ'¦. Referendums definitely do enrich democracy, since they remove any middlemen involved in determining the peopleÐ'ÐŽÐ'¦s choice. It would certainly be unwise and impractical to hold a plebiscite for every political issue that the state plays against, but by involving the citizens in large and critically important matters, the government can be sure that it has made a democratic choice. A combination of both direct and indirect democracy would therefore be the best option for a developed country like Canada. The spread of education and the convenience that science and technology have brought us, make it increasingly easy and achievable to involve the common citizen in policy making, so why not permit a stronger democracy when it can be done?

The democratic system of governance is said to have originated in Athens wherein the all citizens were supposed to assemble to take part in agreeing or disagreeing to certain ideas, laws and beliefs. For the first time, citizenship was not granted on the basis of personal wealth and power, but rather open to all Athenian men. These citizens did not have any agent to represent them since they each had the opportunity to express their own views, and this guaranteed maximum satisfaction amongst the citizen populace. The voting that took place in these assemblies was therefore believed to be the first recorded plebiscites in the history of politics. The ability to exert oneÐ'ÐŽÐ'¦s own power over the people along with other people, led to the coining of the term Democracy ( Demos Ð'ÐŽV Ð'ÐŽÐ'§the peopleÐ'ÐŽÐ'Ё, Kratos Ð'ÐŽV Ð'ÐŽÐ'§force, powerÐ'ÐŽÐ'Ё) .

Over the years, democracy was adopted by most developed western nations and the rest of the world began to follow suit soon after that. The democracy in Athens comprised of just a city worth of citizens, and since not all citizens showed up for every assembly, it was fairly manageable to take each personÐ'ÐŽÐ'¦s vote into account. When entire nations embraced the democratic system of governance, it was obviously quite impractical to continue with a direct democracy since not all citizens were aware or educated enough to make intelligent decisions that would be beneficial to the people. The masses needed to be represented by a knowledgeable like-minded person, and hence representative democracy became the realistic approach towards modern day democracy. People exercise their right to vote by choosing their preferred representative to make political decisions on their behalf, trusting that these representatives will act in their favour, and thatÐ'ÐŽÐ'¦s the farthest that an average citizenÐ'ÐŽÐ'¦s political involvement goes to.

Looking at the situation in western countries today, voting for a political party is just a matter of choosing the lesser of the two evils since most parties fail to represent the full spectrum of what their voters believe in. For example, the legalization of abortion rights in the US would obviously not get passed in The House and The Senate because of the Republican PartyÐ'ÐŽÐ'¦s personal view on the issue. But if this issue was to be opened up to the peopleÐ'ÐŽÐ'¦s vote by way of a referendum, a womanÐ'ÐŽÐ'¦s right to choose would definitely secure a majority of the votes. A poll that was carried out by SurveyUSA in August 2005 found that 54% of Americans are Pro-choice , or in other words, the current ruling party fails to represent the view of the majority with regards to abortion rights. Quite clearly, the majority opinions on certain issues tend to get diluted by the personal beliefs of Ð'ÐŽÐ'Ґdemocratic representativesÐ'ÐŽÐ'¦.

Considering the colossal spread of education in western countries, especially Canada and the USA, it would be wrong to assume that citizens still require a representative to make decisions for them on all possible issues. The literacy rate in Canada is 97% and as of 2004, the per capita income in Canada is $31,500 . Canadian citizens do not lack the education to understand the political affairs well enough to be able to vote on them. The per capita income also goes to show that most Canadians are fairly financially stable and do understand the basics of wealth management, hence leaving no reason for the majority of Canadians not to make educated and wise choices when at the polls. This is probably one of the strongest reasons for believing that referendums do enrich our democracy since they give people the chance to make their own informed decisions.

Opponents of direct democracy, referendums in particular, may argue that direct democracy if abused, can lead to mob rule, totalitarianism, fascism and so on. HitlerÐ'ÐŽÐ'¦s use of the plebiscite is often used to convince people against direct democracy, saying that