People's legislation

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Note Flag of Switzerland.svg : In Switzerland the term people's legislation is not used - see Switzerland below.

The term people's legislation refers to a legislative process with which laws are passed, amended or revised directly by the electorate . In an exclusively direct democracy this is the usual way of legislation. In a democratic system with representation (e.g. representative democracy , semi-direct democracy ), people's legislation can be added to otherwise indirect legislation through individual instruments of direct democracy. Since the vast majority of democracies around the world are generally representative, the people's legislation - if any - is generally to be found in the form of supplementary, direct democratic instruments. In order to exercise the people's legislation , a formalized, legally fixed people's legislative process is necessary, which regulates its fair course in accordance with the principles of free elections .

Germany

The Federal Republic of Germany is a federally structured representative democracy, which is why people's legislation is generally provided in the form of supplementary direct democratic instruments.

At the federal level , Article 20, Paragraph 2 of the Basic Law (GG) states : “All state authority comes from the people. It is exercised by the people in elections and votes [...]. ”Since elections always relate to people and votes always relate to factual issues, people's legislation is in principle covered by the Basic Law. In Art. 76 GG, however, the legislative procedure is set out without the people being mentioned there. The Federal Constitutional Court and the vast majority of constitutional law experts interpret this in such a way that people's legislation can be introduced at the federal level, but only after Article 76 of the Basic Law has been supplemented with appropriate wording. In 2002, the then governing parties, the SPD and Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen , tried to change the Basic Law in this direction. The draft still missed the necessary two-thirds majority . In 2006 and 2010 there were further, equally unsuccessful attempts.

At the likewise representative state level , popular legislation was introduced in all federal states by 1996 . Even before the founding of the Federal Republic of few West German saw state constitutions a popular legislation before (eg. As Bavaria and Hesse ). After German reunification, people's legislation was incorporated into the respective constitutions everywhere in the eastern federal states. At about the same time, those western federal states that had not previously known any forms of direct democracy introduced corresponding regulations (Schleswig-Holstein 1990, Lower Saxony 1993, Hamburg 1996). The design of the people's legislation differs greatly in the federal states and accordingly has different effectiveness. While the people's legislation in Bavaria , Berlin and Hamburg, for example , is subject to relatively low hurdles and is regularly applied, in Hesse the people's legislation has been anchored in the constitution since 1946, but because of the high hurdles (which were lowered in 2018), it has so far been of no practical importance.

The people's legislative process in Germany is always structured as a three-stage process, starting with (depending on the federal state) a popular initiative or a petition for a referendum , followed by a referendum and concluded with a referendum (in Baden-Württemberg : referendum ).

Elections in the Weimar Republic
Reichstag elections

National Assembly 1919  • 1920  • May 1924  • Dec. 1924  • 1928  • 1930  • July 1932  • Nov. 1932  • March 1933

Flag of Germany
Referendums

Referendum "Expropriation of the Princely Assets" (1926) • Referendum "Armored Cruiser Ban" (1928) • Referendum against the Young Plan (1929)

Reich presidential elections

1919  • 1925  • 1932

Austria

In Austria there are referendums , plebiscites and referendums .

Switzerland

The German term people's legislation is not used in Switzerland, one speaks of direct democracy , political rights , popular rights .

In the Swiss political system , the proportion of elements of direct democracy is very pronounced. Accordingly, referendums have a significant impact on politics and legislation :

  • There is the popular initiative , in which a certain number of voters (100,000 at federal level) can directly request a vote on a specific constitutional amendment, which is then implemented.
  • Parliament adopted constitutional amendments are subject to the mandatory referendum - without the consent of the two majorities of the people and cantons (so-called cantons ) can not come into force.
  • In an optional referendum , signatures are collected against a law passed by parliament . If the signature hurdle is cleared, there is a nationwide referendum on this law without any submission by the people.

European Union

With the European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) one can ask the EU Commission in the European Union to submit a legislative proposal to parliament. The quorum is 1,000,000 EU citizens and a minimum quorum in at least 7 of the 28 countries. However, the Commission can refer to other measures or reject the ECI's concern, and there is also no possibility of voting on the proposal in an EU-wide referendum .

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