large percentage of the eligible electorate to petition for recall prior to the
question being placed before the electorate as a whole. Recent developments
in the USA suggest, however, that direct mail soliciting may have made such
restrictions less effective than in the past by easing the process of acquiring the
necessary signatures. In the USA recall is generally used for elected officials, but
there is no theoretical reason why it could not also be used for appointed
ones.
Referendum
The referendum is a method of referring a question or set of questions to the
electorate directly rather than allowing them to be settled by the people’s
representatives in the legislature (seedirect democracyandrepresentative
democracy). It was used frequently in the USA from the revolutionary period
at the state level and was used even earlier, and frequently since, in Switzerland.
The policy question may originate from a group of electors directly via an
initiativeor from an official body such as a state government, legislature or
constitutional council. It has been used to determine basic constitutional
questions, for example in Greece to decide whether to retain the monarchy
after the restoration of democracy, and in France in 1962 to decide whether the
president should be directly elected. The referendum is also often used to
determine issues of morality which divide a government or party (as with the
questions of legalizing divorce andabortionin Italy or Ireland) and to settle
local matters which it is thought are best left to individual areas to decide (for
example the sale of alcohol on the Sabbath in Wales). Referendums have also
been manipulated and exploited to enhance the personal power of an auto-
cratic ruler as occurred in France in 1851 after Napoleon III’s coup d’e ́tat and
in Germany after AdolfHitlerobtained full political power in 1934. In these
cases the referendum is seen as conferringlegitimacyand popular approval on
an individual, and sanctions unconstitutional or extra-legal activity. The
development of theEuropean Union (EU)has seen an increase in the
frequency of referendums in its member states, as many are constitutionally
obliged to submit major EU treaties directly to the electorate.
The form which the referendum takes and its legal effect varies with political
systems. The referendum may be purely advisory, or it may be binding in the
sense that either a measure requiresratificationin a referendum to enter into
force or that a referendum result places an obligation on the executive or
legislature to act in conformity with the popular decision within a specified
period (seeplebiscitory democracy). In this latter case, as with the use of
citizen-inspired propositions in California, enormous problems may arise
when a state government and legislature finds itself obliged to legislate a
proposal which it either thinks absurd or literally cannot achieve. For example,
Referendum