Financial referendum
The financial referendum is a special form of the referendum and an instrument of direct democracy . It always relates to parts of the public budget of a regional authority and allows citizens to vote directly on individual budget items.
Certain initial conditions are usually defined as a prerequisite for holding a financial referendum . In most cases, only budget items that exceed a certain absolute amount or a certain proportion of the total budget or investments that will burden the budget for a number of years can be subject to a financial referendum.
The financial referendum is mostly either optional or mandatory. While in its optional form a fixed number of signatures from eligible voters must be collected within a certain period in order to actually bring about a vote on a budget item, a mandatory financial referendum automatically leads to a vote as soon as the conditions regarding the amount and duration of a budget item are met can be achieved. Budget items that do not meet the specified conditions or that the local authority is legally obliged to do cannot be subject to a financial referendum.
The financial referendum is probably the least common type of referendum worldwide and is only used regularly in Switzerland and in many regional authorities.
etymology
The German word referendum is a foreign word from Latin and represents the gerundive of the verb referre “back to back; present, report ".
The financial referendum in Switzerland
The financial referendum takes place in Switzerland in all cantons and many political communities , but not at the federal, i.e. federal, level. While a few cantons have known the instrument since the 19th century, it has only spread throughout Switzerland since the 1970s. Most regional authorities (here: cantons and communes) know either the optional or the obligatory financial referendum , in a few cantons both types exist side by side, although higher requirements apply to the obligatory type.
The introduction of the financial referendum at federal level has been discussed in Switzerland for several decades, but has so far been rejected by a majority of Swiss parties - despite positive experience in cantons and municipalities . Usually the fear is expressed that a federal finance referendum could hinder the Federal Council in its freedom of action and delay or even block important investments.
Effect and reception
Although the financial referendum, due to its high degree of formalization - its procedures and conditions are clearly defined by law - must be seen as an instrument of direct democracy, it also has features of citizen participation . Comparable to other procedures of citizen participation, it extends the democratic influence and citizens beyond the framework of the legislation to other socio-political issues. Its proponents therefore see the financial referendum as an important step towards further deepening democracy. It strengthens citizens' preoccupation with the finances of the community and promotes awareness of public investment. At the same time, it has been empirically proven that financial referrals are an effective means of curbing corruption and, overall, have a moderating and disciplining effect on the elected representatives when dealing with public funds, since disproportionately high or unclean expenditure will most likely be stopped at the ballot box by the citizens .
Also due to the largely positive experience with the financial referendum in Switzerland, some civil society organizations in Germany and Austria are calling for its introduction there too. In many cases, however, a change to the respective (state) constitutions would be necessary, as these often explicitly prohibit votes on parts of the budget, or there are simply no regulations for holding a financial referendum. The critics of the financial referendum mostly argue that it can block important investments and limit the administration's ability to act. In addition, in contrast to the administration and parliament, citizens are often not in a position to objectively assess the appropriateness of larger budget expenditures.
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Opinions are divided on the financial referendum . In: NZZ , April 8, 2007.
- ↑ # 93; = 1027 & tx_ttnews [backPid] = 915 & cHash = dc2ed7810f Press release ( Memento of the original from February 25, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. of the association Mehr Demokratie e. V., May 30, 2007.
