Self‐Governance in Latin America: To What Extent Can Citizens Make Policy via Direct Democracy?

Abstract

In the past two decades, many Latin American countries incorporated direct‐democracy mechanisms (e.g. initiatives and referendums) into their constitutions. By expanding the room for citizens' political participation, direct democracy was meant to reduce the gap between citizens and government and create a more‐inclusive form of governing, but was it really the case? This article asks, to what extent can citizens use direct democracy to shape public policy in Latin America? It argues that constitutions in Latin America provide an ambiguous basis for the use of referendums and initiatives, which allows governments to shape and limit their use during the agenda‐setting stage. By specifying the limitations on the types of mechanisms used, the issues that cannot be decided via direct democracy, and the barriers to placing mechanisms on the ballot, governments can control the direct democracy process to a greater extent than has heretofore been acknowledged.

Process, Theory, and Practice in Direct Democracy: Avenues for New Research

“…For example, there are convincing explanations as to why legislatures in U.S. states provided citizens with DD (Smith and Fridkin ) and Barczak () has proposed a theory of adoption in Latin American countries. Once adopted, scholars have discussed the legal framework of the new institutions and their design in Latin America (Cortés ), in Europe (Reidy and Suiter ), in the United States, and around the world (Altman ). Similar research developments have occurred for the other stages including the qualification (Adams ) and implementation (Ferraiolo ) of successful MDDs while others have explored how a deliberative component would complement DD (Gastil and Richards ).…”

“…Research on DD needs to consider the relationship among the different stages outlined in Figure to understand how they affect one another (Durán‐Martínez ). For example, the rules of DD determine how MDDs are used, the participation by citizens, how often MDDs appear on ballots, and even their outcome (Cortés ). Similarly, voter turnout may depend on whether an MDD is binding, if the outcome has to be implemented or if it was advisory—for instance, the U.K.'s referendum to leave the European Union was advisory but the government has decided to implement the outcome.…”