Is a Referendum a Good Way to Decide a Major Question Facing a Country?

Fundamentally, a referendum is the manifestation of democracy in its purest form. Democratic governments base their leadership structures around the idea that the collective body politic have individually equal rights to manifest their Rousseauian ‘General Will’ to direct their nation however they see fit. This idea of ‘popular sovereignty’, first born in the French Revolution, is directly embodied in the concept of a referendum, where leadership is placed not in the hands of elected representatives but directly in the people themselves.

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On the one hand, a referendum is a good way to decide a major question facing a country as it embodies the very spirit of democracy itself. For example, the UK’s recent referendum about whether or not the UK should remain in the European Union placed the power to decide firmly back into the hands of ordinary citizens. This effectively destroys any allegations of political elitism as power is shifted into the hands of the people rather than a small group of politicians. Further, it allows the government to acquire political legitimacy for any subsequent action it undertakes as it may claim that it has the veritable ‘weight of the people’ on its side. This can stabilize a government and prevent increasing factionalism and party politics as the opposition will have no choice but to acquiesce to the ‘will of the nation’. Moreover, on the flip side, referendums can act as a check and balance mechanism to government power and unilateralism. It allows citizens to manifest their grievances and thus not only expands the power of the individual as part of the collective but also increases political participation (provided referendums happen often, a political atmosphere may be cultivated that establishes an equally political body politic). Such increase in political participation may act as what behavioral economists Thalen and Sunstein refer to as a ‘choice architecture’, implicitly encouraging people to become more educated so that they can better participate in this growing political culture and not be left out (Salford business school’s analysis of the ‘Fear of Missing Out’ [FOMO] may also apply here to explain the correlation between increasing political participation and educational attainment).

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On the other hand, a referendum can create a whole host of problems. Using the above example of Brexit, when a referendum yields results with a close margin, then far from providing a decisive outcome this can lead to increased political tensions. This is exactly what happened over Brexit. The close vote differential further polarized politicians creating opposing factions and leading to political turmoil. The lack of decisiveness and unity is compounded by the fact that referendums tend to express the will of those who are politically active and educated as opposed to the ‘General Will’ of the population. Although the argument is made above that education is correlated with political cultivation, the fact remains that not everyone will show up to vote. This is certainly the case in Malaysia where average voter turnout tends to be only 70%. The other 30%, comprising a substantial portion of the population, don’t have their interests represented and thus the idea of referendums as the symbol of democracy becomes distorted when practically applied as it often excludes a significant portion of the population. Finally, referendums in theory differ from referendums in practice. Whilst in theory referendums are meant to shift power to the people as opposed to the political elites, in practice referendums today (as evidenced by such things as the Brexit referendum) tend to be little more than political tools to legitimate the power of one party/interest group over all others. A referendum then becomes a political war where parties merely try to convince people to vote ‘their way’. It isn’t a means to decide important questions, it’s a political magic trick to provide the body politic with an illusion of power, whilst in reality all that’s increasing is party power.

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Overall, whilst referendums at their theoretical core remain the cornerstone of democracy, one should be wary of its manipulation to be used as a tool rather than an effective system. Although, it often can be used and should be used to democratically and justly decide upon a major question a country is facing, its absorption into the organ of party politics and the political manipulation of the body politic by political elites render it ineffective in deciding major decisions fairly.