The referendum : its use and abuse

Abstract

A referendum is defined in the Oxford Dictionary as a "system by which a question is submitted to the direct vote of the whole electorate". It has become a familiar device in New Zealand politics. The idea of plebiscitary democracy through the referendum is obviously acceptable to most of our politicians if not to the people as a whole. During the last sixty years or so it has grown up with its more respectable cousin, representative democracy. On the surface the referendum appears the most democratic of all the institutional devices whereby the will of the people is ascertained and then converted into policy. It is curious however that this 'democratic reform' has, unlike other democratic procedures, emanated just as much, perhaps more, from the will of those governing as from that of those governed. Here, then, lies one of the main reasons for this research. Is the referendum democratic? Again, even if it is, is it really needed? Sometimes it happens that a serious and wide divergence develops between government and people. This is seldom the case in New Zealand. Indeed it is a not infrequent complaint that government is too close to the people. The distinctive feature of our government and politics, says a recent writer, is its intimacy (P. Campbell, in "Politicians, Public Servants, and the People in New Zealand," Political Studies, October, 1955, p.193).