Society has moved on and the educational and social levels of its citizens have improved. Hence, people are increasingly better able to have and express their own opinion on whatever subject is under debate in the political arena. However, there has been a significant rise in abstentions at the ballot box, as we have witnessed of late. And this is worrying.
It is difficult to simply import or copy the formulas that have worked for a long time in other states. Countries such as Switzerland, Italy, the German Federal Republic, the United States, Uruguay, to name a few, have elements of direct citizen-based participation in politics in order to deal with issues of a central interest or legislative changes. Focusing solely on continental Europe, 248 referenda at a State level were held in the nineties – making up more than half of the world total, 405– and 115 of them were held in Switzerland, a country that has more than a one-hundred year history of citizen-based participatory democracy. If we consider regional or local referenda, we can take the example of the German state of Baviera, where, in the seven years that have passed since this mechanism was introduced, more than five hundred plebiscites have been held. Furthermore, if we look at the new constitutions of the counties of Central and Eastern Europe, which emerged in the nineties following the collapse of the Soviet Union, we can see that most of them have introduced control mechanisms and citizen participation in important policy decision-making. Those countries, all of them young democracies, have held no fewer than ninety plebiscites or referenda, on questions that cover everything from their own independence (from the former Soviet Union) to the withdrawal of Russian troops.
Has the use of plebiscites in Switzerland, Germany or the United States meant a reduction in power, influence and confidence in those countries’ political representatives and institutions? Evidently not. It may happen – and, in fact, it does in some– that there is mistrust, but there are other causes. At any rate, the popular initiatives force a high level of political activity in periods not strictly electoral and
increase contact between politicians and constituents, compelling the former to bear their opinion in mind.
Spain has had few popular participatory processes. In fact, only three referenda have been held in thirty years: the ones on NATO membership, the European Constitution and the ratification of the Constitution after its approval by Parliament. At an autonomic level, there have been the mandatory referenda of the statutes of autonomy, whose efficacy and validity is subject to the decisions that a constitutional court -whose independence is currently at an all-time low- may back. Where, in this case, does the popular will stand?
On the other hand, the initiative of calling all manner of plebiscites – even municipal ones — is constitutionally subject to the approval of the Council of Ministers. The right to the plebiscite, then, is entirely conditioned, which increases the distance between political action and what the citizenry really think and seek. One aspect that must be taken into account and put forward when addressing constitutional reforms, something that is being called for with ever-greater urgency.
