Thanks for this very enlightening post, I’m eager to read the follow-ups! Could you elaborate on why legislative referenda avoid polarization? Who has the initiative (of legislative referenda)?
Legislative referendum happens if 50,000 signatures are collected within 100 days.
As for polarization, I want to address that in part III., but the gist of it is that opposition can almost block the normal political process by initiating referenda over and over again.
The governing parties can maybe live with it for some time but eventually it leads to a crisis. And once the crisis hits the solution is usually to give the opposition a seat in the government. But keep in mind that this is a really slow process, measured in decades.
Thanks for this very enlightening post, I’m eager to read the follow-ups! Could you elaborate on why legislative referenda avoid polarization? Who has the initiative (of legislative referenda)?
Legislative referendum happens if 50,000 signatures are collected within 100 days.
As for polarization, I want to address that in part III., but the gist of it is that opposition can almost block the normal political process by initiating referenda over and over again.
The governing parties can maybe live with it for some time but eventually it leads to a crisis. And once the crisis hits the solution is usually to give the opposition a seat in the government. But keep in mind that this is a really slow process, measured in decades.