Abstract
When democracy is defined as government by the people, for the people and of the people, a great deal of ambiguity is packed into eleven words. Government by the people is literally impossible in any political system larger than a village. A representative democracy can be described as government for the people because members of the parliament are accountable to citizens in a free and fair election. In contemporary Europe, the most common form of democracy is representative democracy. However, if representatives are very disproportionately male and middle-class and belong to one race in a multiracial society, their claim to be of the people is incorrect in the sociological sense. A referendum is of the people and by the people because all citizens can participate in directly deciding whether a policy should be adopted or rejected.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aachen, C., and L. Bartels. 2016. Democracy for Realists: Why Elections Do Not Produce Responsive Government. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Barber, B. 2004. Strong Democracy: Participatory Politics for a New Age, 2nd ed. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Collier, D., and S. Levitsky. 1997. Democracy with Adjectives. World Politics 49 (3): 430–451.
Colombo, C. 2018. Justifications and Citizen Competence in Direct Democracy: A Multilevel Analysis. British Journal of Political Science 48 (3): 787–806.
Dahl, R. 1989. Democracy and Its Critics. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Farrell, Jason, and Paul Goldsmith. 2017. How to Lose a Referendum: The Definitive Story of Why the UK Voted for Brexit. London: Biteback.
Fisher, J., E. Fieldhouse, M.N. Franklin, R. Gibson, M. Cantijoch, and C. Wlezien (eds.). 2018. The Routledge Handbook of Elections, Voting Behavior and Public Opinion. London: Routledge.
Freedom House. 2019. https://freedomhouse.org/report/.
Habermas, J. 1996. Between Fact and Norms: Contributions to a Discourse Theory of Law and Democracy. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Hibbing, J., and E. Theiss-Morse. 2002. Stealth Democracy: Americans’ Beliefs About How Democracy Should Work. New York: Cambridge University Press.
ICE: Independent Commission on Referendums. 2018. Report of the Independent Commission on Referendums. London: University College London Constitution Unit.
Lijphart, A. 2012. Patterns of Democracy: Government Forms and Performance in Thirty-Six Countries, 2nd ed. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Marsh, M. 2018. Voting Behaviour in Referendums. In Fisher et al. 2018, 256–266.
Mendez, F., and M. Germann. 2018. Contested Sovereignty: Mapping Referendums on Sovereignty over Time and Space. British Journal of Political Science 48 (1): 141–165.
Mudde, C., and C. Kaltwasser. 2017. Populism: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Müller, J.-W. 2016. What Is Populism? London: Penguin Books.
Nagel, J., and R. Smith (eds.). 2013. Representation, Elections and Beyond. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Pateman, C. 1970. Participation and Democratic Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Przeworski, Adam. 1995. Sustainable Democracy. New York: Cambridge University Press Przeworski.
Qvortrup, M. (ed.). 2018a. Referendums Around the World. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Qvortrup, M. 2018b. The History of Referendums and Direct Democracy. In The Routledge Handbook to Referendums and Direct Democracy, ed. L. Morel and M. Qvortrup, 11–26. London: Routledge.
Rose, R. 2015. Representing Europeans: A Pragmatic Approach, 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Rose, R., and B. Wessels. 2020. Do Populist or Civic Values Drive Support for Referendums in Europe? European Journal of Political Research, in press.
Rosenbluth, F., and I. Shapiro. 2018. Responsible Parties: Saving Democracy from Itself. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Ruth, S.P., Y. Welp, and L. Whitehead (eds.). 2017. Let the People Rule. Colchester: ECPR Press.
Sartori, G. 1987. The Theory of Democracy Revisited. Chatham, NJ: Chatham House.
Schumpeter, J. 1952. Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, 4th ed. London: George Allen & Unwin.
Serdült, U. 2018. Switzerland. In Referendums Around the World, ed. M. Qvortrup, 47–112. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Talpin, J. 2018. Do Referendums Make Better Citizens? In The Routledge Handbook to Referendums and Direct Democracy, ed. L. Morel and M. Qvortrup, 405–418. London: Routledge.
Ulieri, P. 2000. Plebiscites and Plebiscitary Politics. In International Encyclopedia of Elections, ed. R. Rose, 199–202. Washington, DC: CQ Press.
Weale, A. 2018. The Will of the People: A Modern Myth. Oxford: Polity Press.
Wheatley, J. 2017. A Problem or a Solution? In Ruth et al. 2017, 41–61.
Zmerli, S., and T. van der Meer (eds.). 2017. Handbook on Political Trust. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Rose, R. (2020). How Democratic Elections Differ. In: How Referendums Challenge European Democracy . Palgrave Studies in European Union Politics. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44117-3_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44117-3_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-44116-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-44117-3
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)