The People's Choice
Written by David Walker
This publication is attached to the following conference: Referendums in France and the UK
On the face of it, France and the UK view direct democracy differently. The 1789 revolution made the people sovereign in French political self-understanding and, after 1870 in political practice. The new France was formally inaugurated by referendum, in 1945. In parallel, the ruling British doctrine rested on the unassailable position of parliament, drawing on England’s 17th century revolution. MPs were the lynchpin of the political system and they tolerated no rivals in democratic legitimacy, including the populace.
But recently the two countries have converged – certainly since 1975, when a referendum approved the UK’s continuing membership of the European Economic Community. The device is now freely used in the UK. Once, referendums were a way of merely consulting the people and, theoretically at least, in no way circumscribed parliament. Now, MPs are willing to bind themselves to the people’s decision, as they did through the referendum in March 2011 on extending the powers of the Welsh Assembly.
In France some see movement in the contrary direction. Politicians are more circumspect about referendums, even if ‘they remain a more normal way of doing things’. Since the inauguration of the Vth Republic in 1958, ten referendums have been held, only two of them attracting a turn out of less than 50 per cent. Popular participation in the UK has been less enthusiastic. Turnout in May 2011 was only 42 per cent, in the referendum on the Alternative Vote for MPs.
So, both countries now come together in accepting the legitimacy of the referendum as a constitutional tool. In the UK the devolution referendums have reshaped the country. The demand for a popular vote over membership of the European Union has been loud if vain, expressing an often paradoxical sense of imbalance between parliamentary authority and the people’s voice.
Against such a background, this report examines the scope and limits of the referendum.
Number of pages/format: 10
Published: October 2011