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- Title
Hijacked Direct Democracy: The Instrumental Use of Referendums in Romania.
- Authors
Gherghina, Sergiu
- Abstract
This article is part of the special cluster titled Political Parties and Direct Democracy in Eastern Europe, guest-edited by Sergiu Gherghina. The relationship between political parties and referendums has been receiving increased attention in the literature. While most research has focused on the challenges faced by political parties, little attention is dedicated to the ways in which they can use referendums to serve their purposes. This article analyzes the seven national-level referendums organized in post-communist Romania between 1991 and 2012 and shows how referendums were not used primarily as a means to reflect citizens' opinions on policy issues. Instead, they were primarily used as electoral strategies for legitimacy purposes or to augment the popularity of the initiators or main supporters. In isolated instances, they were oriented against other competitors.
- Subjects
DIRECT democracy; REFERENDUM; POSTCOMMUNISM; ELECTION policy; ROMANIAN politics &; government
- Publication
East European Politics & Societies, 2019, Vol 33, Issue 3, p778
- ISSN
0888-3254
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1177/0888325418800553