Representative Democracy Referenda Harmful

To what extent are Referenda Harmful in a Representative Democracy?

Referendums are very harmful to a Representative Democracy. They undermine Parliamentary Sovereignty, allow our politicians to abdicate responsibility for major political decisions, prevent them from exercising their informed judgements, and can be manipulated by Governments. This is to say nothing of the premise of allowing important decisions to be made by an uninformed electorate that can be swayed by the Media Industry at the drop of a hat. And indeed, the worst case scenario of Tyranny by Majority is one that should not be disregarded. Of course, Referenda are not entirely harmful. They are useful tools for ensuring that elected Governments do not overstep their boundaries
As the MP for Bath John Patten put it, “They undermine Westminster. What they ensure, as we saw in the last election, is if you have a referendum on an issue politicians during an election campaign say oh we're not going to talk about that, we don't need to talk about that, that's all for the referendum.”. One example of this occurring would be the General Election of 2001, where one hotly contested topic was the prospect of Britain joining the Euro. Many arguments should have been made regarding our relationship to the Single Currency – none were, however. This is because Gordon Brown indicated a referendum would be held, effectively sweeping the entire issue under the carpet, and it was never seriously considered again. Incidentally, the referendum was never held, and the enormous Constitutional Issue ceased to be a topic of note, at the whim of the Government. This isn’t to say the reverse is not true. Blair’s Government held a referendum in 2004, on the proposition of North-Eastern England devolving to have its own elected assembly. The Regional Assemblies were a large project for the Labour Government, but the North-East shot it down, with 77.9% of the votes cast showing a no to the
For instance, the infamous Sun headline of 1992 “It was The Sun wot won it” following Labour’s huge defeat at the polls, exemplifies the extent of the problem. Many analysts anticipated a narrow Labour majority, but in actual fact the Conservatives came out with a huge win. It was no coincidence that the morning of polling day, the Sun headline read “If Neil Kinnock wins today, will the last person to leave Britain please turn out the lights” referring to incumbent Labour Leader Neil Kinnock. The article went on to brand him “Worst Prime Minister ever”. With many right-wing newspapers opposed to Britain’s further involvement with the EU, such a result looks likely to happen again in