Disadvantages Of Referendums In Uk

Referendums are devices for obtaining extra legitimacy for policy proposals or for reducing internal party disputes over party alternatives. They tend to replace the normal role of parliament and are a form of direct democracy, although initiation comes from the government and not the governed. There is an indication of the growing frequency of the use of referendums as a way of legitimising policies or appealing to the public beyond divided party structures. What was seen as non-British, inconsistent with parliamentary sovereignty, has quickly established itself as a central part of the British political process. Referendums have been called as a result of political expediency when the survival of the government depends upon it calling a referendum
An example of this is in 1975, the Labour government of Harold Wilson called a referendum on the membership of the European Economic community since his government was struggling over the issue and the only way of uniting it was to give the public a vote on the membership of the EEC with the condition to his colleagues that they would have to accept the majority vote. In 2011, David Cameron was forced to call a referendum on whether to replace FPTP with AP for Westminster elections since this was the answer the Liberal Democrats had demanded for joining the coalition. We also have had referendums to show the dangers of direct democracy. For example, in 1975 the “yes to Europe” campaign won successfully because it spent more than the No Campaign and was much more organised, and it also has been put forward that, in 2011, the “yes to av” campaign lost so heavily because too many voters saw the referendum as less about AV than as an excuse to punish nick clegg and the liberal democrats for their role in the coalition. There was a concern, too, that the referendum on Scottish independence might be determined more by enthusiasm for Alex Salmond and Scottish nationalism than for the appreciation of the consequences for both England and Scotland. Governments, too, can use referendums for their own advantage, rather than for the good of the public an example of this is from Harold Wilson in 1975 when he called a referendum on British membership of the EEC and the proposal that the public should be allowed a direct say over their council tax and whether it should be increased and that was politically motivated as based on the experience of Bristol where voters decided not to vote for a higher council tax to fund more money for education, voters are normally likely not to vote for an increase