Referendums Around the World: The Continued Growth of Direct DemocracyQvortrup, Matt (ed.) Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan (2014), 306 p., ISBN 978‐0‐230‐36175‐1

With the anthology “Referendums around the World”, editor Matt Qvortrup presents the latest results of his research on direct democracy. He had already made his mark with his earlier books on “A comparative study of referendums” (2002) and “The politics of participation” (2007). The new publication is another brick in the wall of a growing number of books whose aim it is to provide an insight into and overview of the development and use of direct-democratic instruments worldwide. In this connection one can refer, for example, to Lawrence LeDuc's ‘The Politics of Direct Democracy’ (2003), offering a view on referendums in a global perspective, Kara L. Lindaman's anthology on ‘Direct Democracy – the struggle for democratic responsiveness and representation’ (2011), and David Altman's ‘Direct Democracy Worldwide’ (2011), to mention just a few of them. Even though, in many countries, direct democracy does not play any role at all, scholars are more and more aware of the potential of direct democracy as an enrichment of purely representative democracy, as a method to increase the responsiveness of political systems, and as a device to activate political participation by the people. Direct democracy has thus come to be considered worldwide as a genuine option in politics, whereas in earlier decades direct democracy and research on direct democracy was especially concentrated on just a few countries, in particular on the outstanding example of Switzerland. For these reasons, academic literature on direct democracy was very often written in German, and a long list of publications by Swiss authors and a growing list of German authors could be mentioned at this stage. Thus, Qvortrup's edited publication stands, on the one hand, for an internationally growing interest in research into direct democracy, covering all regions of the world. On the other hand, it is an attempt to summarise research and findings of numerous authors and research centres which includes a worldwide compilation of data, single case studies and comparative studies as well as specific aspects of direct democracy in both a theoretical and empirical perspective. “Referendums around the World” looks at the big picture. The anthology contains eight territorial chapters, each focusing on a world region, with a separate chapter, written by Uwe Serdült, devoted exclusively to Switzerland (chapter 3). Matt Qvortrup himself wrote the chapter on Western Europe (chapter 2) as well as the Introduction and the Conclusion (chapter 9). The other world regions are Russia, the Former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe (by Ronald J. Hill and Stephen White); North America (Todd Donovan); Latin America (David Altman); Africa (Norbert Kersting); Asia (Masahiro Kobori); and Oceania (Caroline Morris). The book also contains about fifty pages of tables detailing popular votes in the different world regions, naming the country, the year of the vote, the issue, turnout, and the share of yes-votes. It ends in 2013. Anyone needing more detailed and up-to-date information on direct-democratic decisions worldwide should consult the main (online) source of the tables, i.e. the Centre for Research on Direct Democracy (c2d) in Aarau, Switzerland.1 The book gives an excellent brief overview of the history of direct democracy in different regions of the world, the development of legal provisions, and the use of these instruments – not only in relation to the number of votes, but also as regards the initiators and their main motives. The individual authors – academics from the UK (including Scotland), the United States, Chile, Ireland, Germany, Switzerland, and Japan – are all specialists in their respective fields, and they are all able to refer to their own former studies and publications. Thus, even if they have not conducted their own research on all of the countries included in their chapter, they are familiar with the situation in the specific region. If we consider first the positive aspects of the book, i.e. in that it provides an overview of the global situation, including nearly all the countries in the world, we should perhaps not be surprised that in almost no cases could the situation in any country be elaborated in detail. Switzerland, with its long tradition of direct democracy, is the exception and, as mentioned above, is discussed in its own chapter. The chapter on North America has a comparable starting point because it mainly deals only with the United States and Canada. Yet there are none (US), or hardly any, popular votes at the federal level in these countries (just three in Canada between 1898 and 1992). Thus the chapter on North America pays particular attention to direct-democratic procedures at the state or provincial level. This leads us to some weaknesses in the anthology. As we have just seen, there is no clear focus on the national or the federal level. If the sub-national level – or even the local level – should be included, then why not in every chapter? One is left with the impression that the instructions to the different authors could have been somewhat more precise. This holds even more so for definitions of terms and for what kind of direct-democratic instruments really belong to the volume. The problem begins with the title, which announces a book on “referendums”. In the Introduction by Qvortrup (p. 1), referendums are defined as “popular votes on bills before they become law”, whereas legislative initiatives are defined as “popular votes on laws proposed by citizens”. Later on, Altman uses the term “mechanism of direct democracy” and defines it as “a publicly recognized institution wherein citizens decide or show their opinion on issues” (p. 163). Also, it is not clear throughout the volume how recalls are dealt with, whether consultative popular votes are treated in the same way as binding popular votes, or whether plebiscites – popular votes initiated “from above” – can be interpreted as direct-democratic instruments, too. In the tables it is specifically unsatisfactory that no distinction has been made between the different types of ballot. Moreover, at least in the case of Liechtenstein, citizens’ initiatives are included, whereas facultative referendums initiated by the people, counterproposals, and referendums initiated by the parliament are not. Of course, the history of every single country, as well as the political culture, the legal provisions (in many cases influenced by the legal traditions of a former colonial power), the use of instruments etc. differ widely, making comparisons between them anything but easy. But it would be helpful if terms and definitions were used in a uniform manner in such a volume as this, and if they were also strictly classified as to their democratic quality. Nevertheless, the book can be warmly appreciated as an update of David Butler and Austin Ranney's “Referendums Around the World’ (1993), to which the editor, Matt Qvortrup, makes reference, as well as to the earlier version “Referendums: A Comparative Study of Practice and Theory” (1978) by the same authors. Anyone wishing to learn about the use of direct-democratic devices in different regions of the world should take note of this book. It does not only show where, under what historical circumstances, and on which legal and cultural traditions the use of referendums has increased in the 20th century – or decreased in some cases. It also shows that the contribution of direct-democratic procedures to the development of democracy is very much dependent on who dominates the procedure. It makes a great difference whether the instruments are at the disposal of the citizens or in the hands of autocrats and dictators – such as is the case in most referendums in Asia. Moreover, the volume reminds the academic community, indirectly, to intensify research on direct democracy, especially in a comparative perspective. According to Kersting and Morris in the volume, not much attention has so far been given to direct democracy in Africa or in the Pacific microstates. Caroline Morris also cites Butler and Ranney (1994) and concludes that, at least in the case of Oceania – but probably also more widely –, it still holds true that “in most countries, referendums are unique, both in origin and in consequences. There are no universal rules; at the most, there are some widely observed tendencies” (p. 243).

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