Other countries should be more like Ireland and hold more elections.

Ireland is voting in a referendum on Europe’s new fiscal treaty. It is the only nation which is having the opportunity to vote on the treaty. Ireland is constitutionally obliged to hold referendums on new treaties meaning that it regularly votes on European issues. Other countries like Britain on the other hand almost never vote on referendums with the vote on staying in the EU in 1974 and 2011 vote on changing to the ‘alternative vote’ electoral system being the only nationwide referendums. Moreover in the UK a referendum could simply be overturned by a future parliament because the concept of parliamentary sovereignty means no future parliament can be bound to prevent it from changing or repealing legislation. This means referendums could also be an ineffective measure so helping to explain their rarity. Ireland itself has a history of voting no in referendums and then voting yes at the second attempt showing that governments may just ask until they get the right answer. Yet despite these disadvantages should governments be consulting their people more often. Democracies are supposed to mean the people hold the power but in practice elections once every four to seven years is a very weak instrument for democratic control over the government. Citizens are prevented from having any impact on individual decisions. Should countries therefore hold more referendums to help return power to the people?

Debatabase debate: This House calls for the increased use of referendums. http://idebate.org/debatabase/debates/constitutional-governance/house-calls-increased-use-referendums

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/05/31/uk-ireland-referendum-idUKBRE84...