ChallengesThe implementation of a representative democracy creates a number
of challenges that are addressed by means of constitutional law:
- It should be decided how the rulers are elected or appointed.
- A system needs to be devised to regulate how powers are distributed among
various rulers and how the offices relate to one another. - Fundamental considerations should be devoted to the question how to prevent
abuses of power by the rulers. After all, there is no guarantee that those in power
will not seek to perpetuate their power, at which point the system becomes
neither representative nor democratic.
Controls against abuse of power are indeed vital. As the American revolutionary
and drafter of the US Constitution James Madison observed in 1788:
If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men,
neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a
government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this:
you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it
to control itself. A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the
government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions.Recall A powerful check on the government in a representative democracy is the
introduction of elements that are taken from direct democracy. In an otherwise
representative democracy, direct democratic elements can take two main forms: the
recall election and the referendum. A recall is a popular vote to dismiss an already
elected officeholder before the term of office has expired.
In Western systems, recalls are typically found at regional and local levels rather
than at national level.
Famously, Arnold Schwarzenegger became governor of the US state of California in a
recall election to oust the incumbent governor Gray Davis in 2003.Referendum A recall is a deviation from the principle of representative democ-
racy that powers are delegated for a fixed term and that the electoral sanction is the
refusal to reelect an officeholder. A referendum, meanwhile, deviates from the
principle that decisions are taken by the rulers on behalf of the governed. Instead,
the approval or continued effect of a certain decision is left to a popular vote.
Sometimes a referendum vote is used not only to correct decisions as taken by the
legislature (asking for a yes or no of a legislative decision – corrective referendum), but
also to enable the people to adopt a new and original proposal which becomes law after
adoption, bypassing the legislature. States may opt for both possibilities or pick one
of them.
Evidently, referenda need to be subject to procedural checks, such as the
circumstances in which a proposal is considered to be adopted or rejected (e.g.,
whether it is because a majority of the votes have been cast or there is a majority of
the people in favor, defining the threshold needed to table a referendum, what
subjects may be excluded from a referendum, etc.).
8 Constitutional Law 183