The forms of direct democracy: Popular initiative and referendum

Abstract

The referendum and the popular initiative as the forms of direct democracy are more and more present in the decision making process within the model of the representative democracy. 'Let the citizens be the lawmakers for one single day' is a principle especially current in the European states. Envisaged as a corrective, but not as the substitution for representative democracy, it is both glorified and contested at the same time. From their basic function consisting of the elected politicians control and the wider citizen's participation in the politics, they can also become a means of the manipulation. The Serbian experience with these political mechanisms is not so different comparing with the average situation - we have more referendums, but less popular initiatives, especially on the local level. The Serbian constitution from 2006. has precise and aggravated the conditions of using of the referendum and popular initiative. On the basis of this constitution was made the draft of law. The proposed solutions are in accordance with the EU recommendations regarding good referendum practice, but they also admit the dilemmas about the setting of the turnout quorum and quorum for acceptance of the referendum decisions.

Referendum i narodna inicijativa kao oblici direktne demokratije sve su prisutniji u procesu donošenja odluka u modelu predstavničke demokratije. Da građani 'bar jedan dan budu zakonodavci' posebno je rasprostranjeno u evropskim državama. Zamišljeni kao korektiv, a ne zamena predstavničkoj demokratiji oni se glorifikuju koliko i osporavaju. Od kontrole izabranih i veće participacije građana u politici oni mogu postati i sredstvo manipulacije. Iskustva Srbije u korišćenju ovih mehanizama ne odudaraju od proseka - više je referenduma, a manje inicijativa, posebno na lokalnom planu. Ustav RS iz 2006. godine razradio je i pooštrio uslove korišćenja referenduma i inicijative. Na osnovu njega sačinjen je nacrt Zakona. Predložena rešenja slede preporuke EU o dobroj referendumskoj praksi, ali ostavljaju i dileme oko određivanja kvoruma izlaznosti i kvoruma za prihvatanje referendumskih odluka.