Essay Plan: Referendums

Introduction - A referendum is a vote on a particular issue, usually requring a yes/no response, with many countries holding them to answer questions surrounding political issues, to solve any potential political conflicts and put into light the views of the electorate. Despite referendums being a good opportunity to garner public opinion on certain issues, to educate the public and ability to reduce the power of government, there are some issues behind incidents of misinformation, lack of accountability and the fluctuating strength of government, making the electorate question the necessity and purpose of referendums. Argument for referendums 1 - Provides a level of political support for difficult decisions and enforces a responsive government. For example, the Scottish Independence Referendum in 2014 showed that a lot of people supported the rejection of independence and their desire to remain a constituent country of the United Kingdom. Referendums make governments more responsive between elections by forcing them to listen to public opinion, and allow public opinion to be expressed on a particular issue, which cannot be done during elections. Counter-argument for referendums 1 - These decisions, however, are the reason why governments are elected to govern. Governments should make policy decisions and be accountable for these decisions, instead of handing over responsibilities to the public. However, these past government decisions have had the tendency to come back to bite, with an example being the AV Referendum allowing the Lib Dem leader to get targeted by voters due to the promise of university fee reduction not being kept properly. This shows the democratic feature of accountability not being fulfilled to its fullest extent, with referendums becoming opinion polls with people focusing more on government performance, rather than key issues. Argument for referendums 2 - Provides political education - there were a number of campaigns set up for the Brexit referendum, for example, Vote Leave and Britain Stronger in Europe, with the Remain side highlighting dangers to trade if ties were severed with, what was considered to be, Britain's largest trading partner, and the Leave side wanting to gain greater control over immigration. By widening debate on an issue, referendums create a better educated electorate, who have a stronger incentive to think and act politically, fulfilling democratic function of education well.