Referendums in Ireland

Question 1

What are the main characteristics of referendums in Ireland ?

Answer 1

• Initiated only by government (Art. 27)
• Right for citizens to petition (direct democracy, a.48 in 1922 Constitution)
• Irish Constitutional Convention recommendation
• First sub-national referendum in 2019 (2019 local elections, so referendums in Cork, Limerick and Waterford on elected mayors, said to be somewhat populist)

Question 2

How many referendums have there been in Ireland ?

Answer 2

42 referendums, 28 of which were successful (some on same day)

Per decades;

1950s = 1

1960s = 2

1970s = 5

1980s = 4

1990s = 10

2000s = 8

2010s = 11

Question 3

What are the three main areas of interest for referendums in Ireland ?

Answer 3

1. Social Change
2. EU integration
3. Voting related

Question 4

What are some common factors of the “social change” referendums ?

Answer 4

• Dealing with sticky issues (e.g. abortion)
• ‘Modernization’ agenda
• Can also have anti-liberal goal, ex: 1983 abortion referendum

Question 5

What are some common factors of the “EU integration” referendums ?

Answer 5

• Ireland’s ‘fixed’ Constitution, if adjustments to the Constitution are required to pass EU bills, then a referendum is necessary

First one = 1972 referendum for accession

Question 6

What are some common factors of the “voting related” referendums ?

Answer 6

• Only 7 from 1959 to 1999
• Latests 4 have passed with high majorities
• Turnout is decreasing with time
• Around 40% turnout in the last two

Question 7

Explain the “constraints on public information.”

Answer 7

Questions about equity regarding how much information is available to citizens throughout referendums.

• Adequate information vs. equity in treatment of both sides (by media, allocation of public space, etc.)
• McKenna 1995 - no allocation of public resources / funds to either side (this would be considered anti-constitutional)
• Coughlan 2000 - broadcasting judgement, granting equal coverage to both sides

Question 8

What are the central problems highlighted concerning referendums in Ireland ?

Answer 8

1. Potential electoral benefits for small/niche parties
2. Creates a coverage vacuum
3. Lack of available of inadequate information affects participation (if you don’t know, vote no)
4. Social media as a platform, makes implementation of Coughlan 2000 for example, very difficult.

Question 9

What are some potential solutions to these problems concerning referendums ?

Answer 9

1. Fund all parties and both sides fairly throughout
2. Remove restrictions on the broadcasters
3. Implement an Electoral Commission
4. Regulate social media

Question 10

What are the central practices that preceded the Family and Care Referendums of 2024 ?

Answer 10

1. Follows the Citizens’ Assembly on Gender Equality (June 2021)
2. Follows the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Gender Equality (December 2022)
3. Follows the Electoral Commission https://www.electoralcommission.ie/referendums/

Characterized by poor timing, strong division, and a lot of confusion (usually, “I do not know” numbers go down, here they were increasing the more we approached the vote)

Question 11

What are the primary conclusions drawn by the course concerning referendums in Ireland?

Answer 11

1. Ireland is one of the most frequent users of referendums
2. In Ireland, they are only top-down referendums
3. Has only been used as a national tool
4. Characterized by weak ‘architecture’
5. Goes beyond simple, binary choices and implements other democratic tools to support it (ex: citizens’ assemblies or Oireachtas committees)

Question 12

Who is the most prominent users of referendum worldwide ?

Answer 12

Ireland has become one of the world’s biggest users of referendums. (Gallagher, 2021)

Question 13

Why have referendums not been held on a left-right tax and spend issue ?

Answer 13

The use of the referendum is tightly related to constitutional change, and partly as a result, referendums have not been held on classic left–right tax and spend issues. (Gallagher, 2021)

Question 14

What have been the main issues covered by referendums ?

Answer 14

The main issues that have generated referendums have been moral (particularly divorce and abortion) and the ratification of EU treaties. (Gallagher, 2021)

Question 15

What are the factors influencing referendum voting ?

Answer 15

1. The influence of party allegiance is weakening
2. Social class is very influential
3. Age is very influential (Gallagher, 2021)

Question 16

Are minority rights threatened by referendums in Ireland ?

Answer 16

Referendums are sometimes accused of facilitating the expression of minority rights – not true for Ireland.

Instead, referendum in Ireland can be seen as an enhancement of representative government, not a threat to it. (Gallagher, 2021)

Question 17

Were referendums always common in Ireland ?

Answer 17

First fifty years – referendums were rare.

Second fifty years - marked increase in the frequency and salience of referendums - In the period from 1972 to 2020 inclusive, Ireland held fourteen general elections and thirty- eight referendums, and many more votes were cast at referendums (52.1 million) than at general elections (25.4 million).

These numbers emphasize the major role the referendum has acquired as a means of making political decisions in Ireland. (Gallagher, 2021)

Question 18

What are the three constitutional provisions for referendum (original constitution, 1937 Constitution – adopted by the people themselves - 57 per cent of voters approved its adoption) ?

Answer 18

1. ‘After the expiration of a period of eight years from the date of the coming into operation of this Constitution’ any change to the constitution would require approval by the people in a referendum
2. 2/5 of parliamentarians had the power to suspend a bill passed by government, after which a majority of senators of 5% or the electorate could ask the fate of the bill be decided by referendum
3. Article 48 made provision for the introduction of the initiative, according to which, once this was established, if 50,000 people signed a petition in favour of a particular law or constitutional amendment, parliament would either have to pass this proposal or else put the matter to a referendum.

(Gallagher, 2021)

Question 19

What does the current constitutions say about referendums ?

Answer 19

Current constitution calls for referendum if:

1. Article 46.2, any amendment to the constitution requires the approval of the people in a referendum
2. Article 27, a third of deputies and a majority of senators may petition the president not to sign a bill until the will of the people has been ascertained. If the president accedes to this request, he or she declines to promulgate the legislation until either the proposed law has been approved by the people at a referendum within eighteen months or it has been approved again, within the same period, by the Dáil following a fresh general election (has never occurred).

(Gallagher, 2021)

Question 20

How does constitutional change occur in Ireland ?

Answer 20

1. The Dáil must agree to put a specific proposal to the people; it does not itself vote on the substance of the proposal, only on whether to put the matter to a referendum.
2. The referendum takes place, and a simple majority success to effect the change; there is no turnout requirement or any other threshold.

(Gallagher, 2021)

Question 21

Discuss certain problems that can arise with the ballot during referendums ?

Answer 21

Issue with the ballot - contains no information about the substance of the proposal, and while information on this is near at hand in the polling booth, the minimalism of the ballot paper creates the potential for confusion when a double negative arises. (Gallagher, 2021)

Question 22

How are public funds handled concerning referendums ?

Answer 22

Public funds can no longer be used to support either side of the referendum – was declared to be unconstitutional in 1995.

Comparative analysis shows that referendums in Ireland are neither especially tightly nor especially loosely regulated (Reidy and Suiter, 2015).

(Gallagher, 2021)

Question 23

Discuss how referendums have been used concerning moral and religious issues.

Answer 23

Moral and Religious Issues - Of the twelve referendums under this heading (see Table 35.1), nine had a liberalizing intention, while the other three aimed to move the status quo in a more conservative direction. (Gallagher, 2021)

Question 24

Discuss how referendums have been used concerning the European Union.

Answer 24

1. Referendum to join the EU – and constitutional amendments involved in doing so also required a referendum.
2. The Crotty judgment has led to the situation where major EU treaties that are ratified by the parliaments of the other member states require the direct approval of the people through a referendum in Ireland.
3. From 1987 to the end of 2020, there have been referendums on such treaties: those of Maastricht, Amsterdam, Nice, and Lisbon.
4. Until that time, for better or worse, the Irish public retains a direct voice in the ratification of treaties that is without equal across the EU. (Gallagher, 2021)

Question 25

Discuss how referendums have been used concerning voting.

Answer 25

Various aspects of the rules governing elections in Ireland are constitutionalized, so any changes to these would require a referendum.

The most important is the electoral system.

Little salience and little controversy. (Gallagher, 2021)

Question 26

Discuss how referendums have been used concerning political institutions.

Answer 26

There have been seven referendums on proposals to amend the political institutional framework (see Table 35.4). (Gallagher, 2021)

Question 27

Discuss how referendums have been used concerning certain issues (others).

Answer 27

Eight further referendums have taken place on a disparate collection of issues (see Table 35.5), most of them arcane and/or uncontentious.

By far the most important of these was the 1998 referendum on the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement, which involved the amendment of Articles 2 and 3 of the constitution: dropping the constitutional claim of jurisdiction over Northern Ireland that Article 3 had expressed, and affirming that ‘a united Ireland shall be brought about only by peaceful means with the consent of a majority of the people, democratically expressed, in both jurisdictions in the island.

22 May 1998 = first time since 1918 that all the people of the island had voted simultaneously on the same issue. Southern vote very much backed the agreement. (Gallagher, 2021)

Question 28

Concerning electoral behaviour in referendums, discuss turnout.

Answer 28

1. Some occurred on the same day as other elections – so more people do vote (general, presidential, European, local, more than one of those)
2. Sometimes more than 1 referendum at a time, so more people to the less high-profile one that has been matched with a very high profile one
3. Salience of the issue very much influences turnout – moral (60), then European (70 for integration and 50 for others), then political institutions (40 or 30) (Gallagher, 2021)

Question 29

Concerning electoral behaviour in referendums, discuss influences on voting behaviour.

Answer 29

Declining relationship between referendum votes and party allegiance.

Party allegiance remains, then, an influence on referendum voting behaviour, albeit without the strength it once had, and social class, religiosity, and age all potentially play a part.

1. Parties are internally divided on referendum issues and are therefore unable to send unambiguous cues to their shrinking band of partisans
2. Much of the running in referendum campaigns is made by interest groups, which may be either pre-existing or ad hoc (Gallagher, 2021)

Question 30

Why is much of the running in referendum campaigns made by interest groups ?

Answer 30

1. Because of a general trend towards greater activity by civil society organizations and interest groups in the policymaking process generally
2. parties’ inability to present a united front on referendum issues sometimes leads to their being more than willing to cede centre stage to other organizations (Gallagher, 2021)

Question 31

How does class influence voting in moral referendums ?

Answer 31

At moral issue referendums, the pattern is that middle-class voters are the most liberal, followed by working-class voters, with farmers the least liberal.

Voting in moral issue referendums shows a remarkable degree of consistency over time, even though the specific issues at stake (legalization of divorce, legalization of same-sex marriage, legalization of abortion, etc.) might seem to be very different, indicating that voters saw each as related to a fundamental underlying conservative–liberal dimension. (Gallagher, 2021)

Question 32

How do age and liberal view correlate in referendums ?

Answer 32

Similarly, and again predictably, age is inversely related to liberalism; in 2018, support for repeal of the eighth amendment declined monotonically from 88 per cent in the eighteen to twenty-four age group to 41 per cent among those aged sixty-years or more. (Gallagher, 2021)

Question 33

What are the trends concerning European Integration referendums ?

Answer 33

Turning to European integration referendums, the relationship with class is slightly different. Now, middle-class voters and farmers are nearly always the most enthusiastic about integrationist steps and working-class voters the least – pattern has been constant throughout the last fifty years.

The highest pro-integration votes occur, again, in the most middle-class Dublin constituencies, but the lowest usually occur in relatively working-class urban constituencies.

When it comes to age there are, perhaps surprisingly, some signs that it is the oldest voters who are most supportive of integrationist measures and youngest voters who are least enthusiastic. (Gallagher, 2021)

Question 34

What is an important nuance when looking at external influence factors vs. party alignement in referendums ?

Answer 34

It should be borne in mind that party affiliation and socio-demographic factors are themselves related. In particular, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil are strongest among older voters, among the most regular church attenders, and among farmers (Cunningham and Marsh, 2018: 142–6; see also Marsh, Chapter 32).

Thus, when we had that party allegiance and voting in referendums are related, this does not necessarily mean that voters are following party cues; it is just as plausible to suggest that the same factors (such as scoring high on a religiosity scale) that lead an individual to vote against liberalizing measures at a referendum also lead them to vote for either Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil at elections. (Gallagher, 2021)

Question 35

What are the political impacts of referendum ?

Answer 35

1. The provision that no constitutional change can be made without being approved in a referendum must have a conservative effect, since it gives the people a ‘veto player’ role, able to block changes that the political elite favours.
2. On the other hand, there are steps that parliament might have been wary about taking, such as the significant liberalization of Ireland’s abortion regime in 2018, for fear of a voter backlash, and the referendum requirement may have speeded up change here by giving voters the opportunity to demonstrate their commitment to reform; the vote in favour of change, at 66 per cent, was much higher than virtually all predictions.
3. A decisive referendum verdict also confers legitimacy upon a decision in a way that a parliamentary vote would not; if, say, divorce or abortion had been legalized by parliament without direct popular sanction, parties opposing these steps might well have continued to try to keep the issues alive and reverse the decision in the next parliament. (Gallagher, 2021)

Question 36

How have referendums in Ireland affirmed minority rights ?

Answer 36

Parties, especially the larger ones, are frequently internally divided by referendum issues, and thus the relentless cycle of referendums may contribute to a loss of internal cohesion, in turn leading to parties’ playing a less central role in structuring political debate generally and increasing the opportunities for smaller parties, resulting in the growing fragmentation of the Irish party system. – these divisive topics would have caused divides within the party anyways - without the possibility of passing these ‘hot potatoes’ to the voters for the ultimate decision, the large parties, which inevitably contain a broad range of opinions, might have been even more internally riven. (Gallagher, 2021)

Question 37

How is the liberal-conservative cleavage expressed in referendums ?

Answer 37

The liberal–conservative cleavage can be expressed at referendums rather than imposing itself upon the party system.

Question 38

How do the constitution and parliament influence the use of referendum in Ireland ?

Answer 38

The capacity of the referendum to cause upheaval in the broader Irish political system is severely limited by the control exercised by the constitution and by parliament over when referendums take place. The constitution removes all discretion from government and parliament as to whether a particular constitutional change requires a referendum. While political actors have to decide whether to press ahead with a proposal or not, they do not have any choice as to whether to put a constitutional change to the people or not.

The place of the referendum, then, is less ambiguous than in countries where political actors do have such discretion, when the matter of whether a particular question should or should not be put to a referendum becomes itself a political issue, the UK’s relationship with the EU being an obvious example. Similarly, parliament is not at risk of being ‘brushed aside’ by the popular vote as might be the case if Ireland, like Italy and Switzerland, had the initiative, which can indeed be di cult to reconcile fully with representative democracy.

In Ireland, it is parliament that decides whether or not a proposal is put to the people, and as such the referendum can be seen as an enhancement of, rather than a threat to, representative government. (Gallagher, 2021)

Question 39

What is a referendum ?

Answer 39

Referendums are procedures that give the electorate a direct vote on a specific political, constitutional, or legislative issue - top-down tools in which the right of initiative lies with a governing or parliamentary layer. (Reidy and Suiter, 2023)

Question 40

How are referendums triggered ?

Answer 40

Mandatory referendums are those that are triggered by specific legal framework requirements such as changing a constitution or when there is disagreement between branches of political power, and the outcomes of such votes are binding and must be implemented.
Governments can initiate non-binding or consultative referendums where they seek the opinion of the public on a specific matter. (Reidy and Suiter, 2023)

Question 41

List different majority and threshold requirements for referendums.

Answer 41

Different majority requirements have received a lot of attention.

1. Simple majority - winning side receives 50 per cent + 1 of the votes cast.
2. Double majority criteria - majority of voters, and a majority of regions, vote in favor of the proposal.
3. Threshold criteria require a minimum percentage of the electorate to participate for a vote to be valid (perverse incentives that include encouraging abstention, which can potentially be more effective than voting No when a voter disagrees with a proposal)
4. Super-majority rules – for example, that 60 per cent of voters must support the proposal (can increase the Yes threshold that must be reached for a proposal to be considered valid)
   Ireland has a simple majority requirement and no additional thresholds.

Ireland has a simple majority requirement and no additional thresholds. (Reidy and Suiter, 2023)

Question 42

List the 10 most prominent impacts of referendums on politics.

Answer 42

1. Only a small number of referendums have been triggered by governments deciding to insert items into the constitution.
2. Campaigners on various policy issues are advocating for referendums to insert ‘rights’ into the constitution.
3. ***Campaigners see referendums on new constitutional clauses as potentially valuable routes to achieving their objectives.
4. While parties adopted referendum positions, the lead roles at most of these campaigns were assumed by civil society groups.
5. Referendums provided the political pressure release valve that meant parties could elude deep connection into the cleavage structure – this distance from cleavage has worked in both directions: parties deeply connected with the major liberal victories at the 2015 marriage and 2018 abortion referendums in Ireland have equally reaped no electoral benefit from spearheading this popular initiative.
6. The increased complexity of EU treaties has generated debate about whether citizens are equipped with the required knowledge base to make informed decisions at EU referendums, and the declaration by ministers in government that they had not read the full text of the Lisbon Treaty provided additional impetus to this point at the first referendum on the treaty in 2008.
7. Referendums are considered a majoritarian device, and also in their essential design a tool that favours the status quo - the refrain ‘Don’t Know? Vote No’ has featured widely in campaigns on technical referendums and underlines the status quo potential of referendums
8. Approval by referendum confers legitimacy on decisions, it can bring final settlement and make the outcome more durable.
9. Finally, the referendum process itself has evolved markedly – the Referendum Commission, its consolidation into a permanent structure as part of the Electoral Commission and greater regulation of many aspects of referendum campaigns have transformed the referendum process.
10. A deliberative component was added to some referendums and while this has proven very successful for moral/ social referendums, a more mixed evaluation arises for technical constitutional matters. (Reidy and Suiter, 2023)

Question 43

List off the instruments of direct democracy.

Answer 43

Instruments of direct democracy:
(1) referendums
(2) citizens’ initiatives
(3) agenda initiatives
(4) recall votes. Ireland uses only the first of these. (Reidy and Suiter, 2023)

Question 44

What do critics of direct democracy emphasize ?

Answer 44

1. Various forms can be manipulated by elites who may use direct votes to inflame controversy surrounding specific issues or co-schedule votes with other elections to distort participation by encouraging or discouraging certain groups of voters to cast their ballots.

EX: issues concerning turnout - the votes usually have a second-order character in that they are considered less important by voters and turnout trends lower than at first-order votes such as general elections

2. Questions have also been posed about the amount of information; voters have on the topics on which they are deciding = concerns that direct democracy votes might yield erroneous outcomes
3. Role of campaign finance is especially controversial, with concerns that well-financed elites could manipulate outcomes
4. Potential for votes that disadvantage minority communities has been widely considered and is one of the most shared arguments against direct democracy (Reidy and Suiter, 2023)

Question 45

What are the most prominent arguments for direct democracy ?

Answer 45

Representative democracy - delegate decision-making powers to public representatives chosen at elections.

Direct democracy provides an instrument of political decision-making in which voters decide on a specific issue at the ballot box.

Advocates for direct democracy emphasize that:

1. Enhance the quality of democracy by giving greater voice to citizens
2. Challenges elite domination of politics
3. Public votes = civic education function and increase opportunities for citizen participation in politics. (Reidy and Suiter, 2023)

Question 46

How is the potential for votes that disadvantage minority communities mitigated in direct democracy ?

Answer 46

1. Strong role for both domestic and international courts to protect political, linguistic, religious, and other human rights.
2. Super-majorities or double majorities are sometimes also designed into direct democracy instruments to provide further safeguards - can make it difficult for proposals to pass. (Reidy and Suiter, 2023)

Question 47

Who supports direct democracy?

Answer 47

1. Engaged voters, with high levels of education and political interest
2. Those disaffected with democracy and a general sense that their actions cannot impact on the political system (Reidy and Suiter, 2023)