Referendums in Times of Crisis: More but not Merrier?

Abstract

The economic crisis forced many governments to implement drastic budget cuts, while others had to accept painful bailouts by external parties such as the IMF and the EU. As a result the output legitimacy (responsiveness) of these governments suffered. One way to address this loss in legitimacy is to include citizens more closely in the decision-making process, attempting to balance unpopular policies through input-legitimacy. One may hypothesize, however, that addressing the loss of legitimacy is more difficult in times of crisis. This panel examines to what extent such a strategy is used and what impact it has in practice, focusing specifically on referendums held in times of economic and political turmoil. After all, holding more referendums does not necessarily increase the support of citizens for the government and may even be an outlet of discontent. The panel includes three types of papers: (1) papers on failed/successful changes in referendum legislation (2) Referendums on bailouts or budgets (e.g. Icelandic and Irish referendums) or (3) changing campaign dynamics in times of crisis (i.e. the government loses referendums it would normally win without much effort, e.g. the Irish referendum on the Senate abolition).