Amending Constitutions through the Referendum Device

Abstract

This chapter is concerned with the use of the referendum device as a mechanism for constitutional change. Such an institutional mechanism is grounded in democratic constitutional theory and is a well-established part of some constitutional democracies. Current interest in direct democracy is mainly focused on popular initiatives and referendums as alternative mechanisms to ordinary decision making by representatives. Such ‘unmediated popular voting’ is supported by some as a purer form of democratic participation that cuts out the mediation of representatives, or what economists might call the transaction costs of indirectness (Budge, 1996, chapter 2) on issues such as immigration or taxation. Such referendums might be seen as being in conflict with, or narrowing the scope for, the normal decision making of representative democracy.