Research On The Referendum System From The Perspective Of Democratic Decision-making

The referendum,an important form of direct democracy,took place in many countries or regions in recent years.Studying the referendum system not only helps deepen the understanding of democratic theory,but also provides insight into the national conditions of the country where the referendum is located.Sartori is a contemporary democratic theorist with significant influence in the West.He believes that direct democracy,including referendum,can easily lead to political hypertrophy,and there is a paradox of autonomy and breadth of autonomy.However,his perspective is limited,so it is necessary to increase the perspective of public decision-making to analyze it comprehensively.This article has five parts.The introduction part focuses on introducing the domestic and foreign related research results of the referendum system.At the same time,this part narrates Sartori’s theory of democratic decision-making,and also analyzes the concepts of decision-making,democratic decision-making,referendum,and direct democratic decision-making.This article uses literature research,case analysis,graph analysis,normative research and other research methods.The first part discusses the theory and practice of the referendum system.From the connotation,type,theoretical evolution and practice of the referendum system,four aspects were introduced.After analysis,it was determined that the main body of the referendum was all citizens within all citizens and nation-states.The essence of the referendum consists of three levels:the tools of political rule;an important part of the democratic system;and the way citizens exercise political rights and engage in political participation..In theory,the participation in the democratic theory put forward by Petterman and MacPherson scholars demonstrates the possibility of the coexistence of the referendum system and the representative system.The theory of deliberative democracy further elaborated the methods of participation in the referendum,ruled out simple majority principles,and helped to solve the majority of tyranny problems that elite democrats feared.The second part elaborates the influence of the referendum decision.Negative effects include zero-sum outcomes,isolated issues,neglect of preference strength,and overestimating citizens’ decision-making abilities.Positive influences include: conforming to the liberty nature of people,reflecting public opinion to the greatest extent,enhancing the legitimacy of government decisions,and increasing restrictions on representatives and political parties.The third part discusses issues that should be paid attention to when evaluating a referendum.It will introduce three aspects: the authority of the decision,the scope of use,the implementation mechanism,and the effectiveness of the results.The national referendum originated from the tradition of direct democracy,and Rousseau’s people’s sovereignty is its theoretical basis.Taking into account the shortcomings of the referendum,this article believes that the principle of simple majority should be changed and the issue should be raised through the threshold.In addition,this article believes that a referendum that meets the constitution,laws,and international law has legal effect.The fourth part puts forward some questions that need further consideration.The previous article mainly discussed the general issues of the referendum decision-making process.This section will examine the specific implementation of the referendum in a certain country.They are the three aspects of the referendum decision-making and national sovereignty relations,the relationship between the national referendum decision-making and the country’s national conditions,and the relations between the referendum decision-making and the civic culture.