8. Referendums

UK Politics ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 171-191
Author(s):  
Andrew Blick
Keyword(s):  
Direct Democracy ◽  
Local Level ◽  
The European Union ◽  
The Public ◽  
Key Features ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Theoretical Considerations ◽  
Political Decisions

This chapter starts with a definition of the term ‘referendum’. A referendum is a means of involving the public in political decisions via voting on specific issues such as leaving the European Union. The chapter focuses on the use of referendums at the local level. It sets out the key features of a referendum. Who is allowed to vote in referendums? What sort of questions are put to voters? Under want circumstances should a referendum take place on specific issues? What are the risks associated with holding a referendum? The chapter also looks at regulations surrounding referendums in the UK. The theoretical considerations that the chapter examines are the fact that a referendum subject tends to be controversial, the relationship between referendums and direct democracy and the implications of the results.

Oratory

2009 ◽  
pp. 504-517
Author(s):  
Lene Rubinstein
Keyword(s):  
Direct Democracy ◽  
Related Problem ◽  
Political Influence ◽  
Ancient Rhetoric ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Political Decisions ◽  
Ordinary Citizens

In a direct democracy such as that of classical Athens, even the most important political decisions were made as a result of debates conducted in mass meetings attended by ordinary citizens. The ability to speak coherently, engagingly, and persuasively was an important key to political influence. This article examines a related problem by asking how much people really know about ancient rhetoric. It discusses the relationship between the public speeches delivered in classical Athens and the textual remains available today, many of which survived because they were considered, in some respects at least, model speeches. The question here is how much the practice of oratory differed from its theory, and to what extent today's texts display the concerns and abilities of a narrow elite.

scholarly journals La experiencia escocesa en los referenda de devolución y secesión = The Scottish experience of devolution and secession referenda

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 61
Author(s):  
Malcolm Harvey
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Direct Democracy ◽  
The European Union ◽  
The Public ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Palabras Clave ◽  
The Uk

Resumen: Consultar e involucrar a la población se ha vuelto habitual en los últimos años. El Reino Unido, que no cuenta con una constitución codificada, ha utilizado el referéndum para decidir sobre diversas cuestiones constitucionales, siendo la más reciente la consulta sobre la permanencia del Reino Unido en la Unión Europea en junio de 2016. Este artículo explora la experiencia escocesa de referenda, examinando el fallido referéndum de devolución de 1979, su repetición exitosa en 1997, y el referéndum de independencia de 2014, en el que los escoceses, de forma aparentemente decisiva, decidieron quedarse en el Reino Unido. Este artículo argumenta que, aunque en cada ocasión fueron las consideraciones políticas, más que los principios, los que llevaron al uso del referéndum, defensores de la democracia directa y activistas y defensores de casos similares pueden aprender algunas lecciones de todas ellas. Palabras clave: Escocia, Referenda, Devolución, Independencia. Abstract: Consulting and engaging with the public has become vogue in recent years.  The United Kingdom, without a codified constitution, has utilised the referendum to decide upon constitutional issues, with the vote to leave the European Union in June 2016 the most recent of these.  This article explores the Scottish experience of referendums, examining the failed devolution referendum of 1979, the reversal of this decision in 1997, and the independence referendum of 2014, in which Scots, apparently decisively, voted to remain in the UK.  This article argues that, though on each occasion political considerations rather than principle led to the use of referendums, there are lessons to be learned from each, both for proponents of direct democracy and for campaigners and activists in similar cases.Keywords: Scotland, Referendums, Devolution, Independence

scholarly journals ‘The house’ as a framing device for public engagement in STEM museums

2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 217-235 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise Whiteley ◽  
Anette Stenslund ◽  
Ken Arnold ◽  
Thomas Söderqvist
Keyword(s):  
Public Engagement ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Multiple Perspectives ◽  
The Public ◽  
Science Technology ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Family Resemblances ◽  
Key Features ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Uk

In the last five to ten years, several science, technology, engineering and medicine (STEM) museums have been experimenting with new forms of public engagement, aiming to be places for curiosity-driven investigation of the cultures of science via multiple perspectives, bringing artists, scientists, researchers, clinicians, members of the public and others together. Yet these diverse and rapidly evolving sites lack a clear definition of their family resemblances – something we argue is crucial for better understanding, advocating, and evaluating what they do. As a starting point for this definitional project we propose ‘the house’ as a metaphor and framing device for public engagement in STEM museums, grounded in experiences at Medical Museion in Denmark and Wellcome Collection in the UK. We further suggest that a Goldilocks principle – the notion of lying between two poles of a continuum in a ‘just right’ position – captures several key features of what it is about the idea of a house that resonates with the approach to public engagement in these museums.Key words: STEM museums, science communication, public engagement, house.

Compliance and Conflict of Value in Public Policy Implementation: Comparison between the New Order and the Reformation Era

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dwiyanto Indiahono ◽  
Erwan Purwanto ◽  
Agus Pramusinto
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Policy Implementation ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Group Discussion ◽  
New Order ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Public Policy Implementation ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Conflict Of Value ◽  
The Relationship

This research aims to examine differences in the relationship of bureaucratic and political officials during the New Order (Soeharto’s era) and the Reformation (post-Soeharto) era within the arena of public policy implementation. This is a matter of importance given that there is a change in relations between the two from integration in the New Order to bureaucratic impartiality in the Reformation Era. This study attempts to answer the question: How were the relations of bureaucratic and political officials in the implementation of local level public policy during the New Order and the Reformation Era? A qualitative research has been conducted in Tegal Municipality using the following data collection techniques: interview, focus group discussion, documentation, and observation. Tegal Municipality was selected as the study location because of the unique relationship shown between the mayor and the bureaucracy. Its uniqueness lies in the emergence of bureaucratic officials who dare to oppose political officials, based on their convictions that bureaucratic/public values should be maintained even if it means having to be in direct conflict with political officials. This research indicates that the relationship between bureaucratic and political officials in the arena of local level policy implementation during the New Order was characterized as being full of pressure and compliance, whereas during the Reformation Era bureaucrats have the audacity to hinder policy implementation. Such audacity to thwart policies is considered to have developed from a stance that aims to protect public budget and values in policies. The occurring conflict of values here demonstrates a dichotomy of political and bureaucratic officials that is different from the prevailing definition of politics-administration dichotomy introduced at the onset of Public Administration studies.

Archaeologists and the Dead

2016 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Historical Context ◽  
Ethical Considerations ◽  
International Context ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Dead ◽  
The Many ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Experience Effect

This volume addresses the relationship between archaeologists and the dead, through the many dimensions of their relationships: in the field (through practical and legal issues), in the lab (through their analysis and interpretation), and in their written, visual and exhibitionary practice--disseminated to a variety of academic and public audiences. Written from a variety of perspectives, its authors address the experience, effect, ethical considerations, and cultural politics of working with mortuary archaeology. Whilst some papers reflect institutional or organizational approaches, others are more personal in their view: creating exciting and frank insights into contemporary issues that have hitherto often remained "unspoken" among the discipline. Reframing funerary archaeologists as "death-workers" of a kind, the contributors reflect on their own experience to provide both guidance and inspiration to future practitioners, arguing strongly that we have a central role to play in engaging the public with themes of mortality and commemoration, through the lens of the past. Spurred by the recent debates in the UK, papers from Scandinavia, Austria, Italy, the US, and the mid-Atlantic, frame these issues within a much wider international context that highlights the importance of cultural and historical context in which this work takes place.

scholarly journals Advancing UK Regulatory Science Strategy in the Context of Global Regulation: a Stakeholder Survey

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samantha Cruz Rivera ◽  
Barbara Torlinska ◽  
Eliot Marston ◽  
Alastair K. Denniston ◽  
Kathy Oliver ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Pay For Performance ◽  
Regulatory Science ◽  
International Strategy ◽  
Free Text ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Accurate Definition ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Healthcare Innovation ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Medium Enterprises

Abstract Background The UK’s transition from the European Union creates both an urgent need and key opportunity for the UK and its global collaborators to consider new approaches to the regulation of emerging technologies, underpinned by regulatory science. This survey aimed to identify the most accurate definition of regulatory science, to define strategic areas of the regulation of healthcare innovation which can be informed through regulatory science and to explore the training and infrastructure needed to advance UK and international regulatory science. Methods A survey was distributed to UK healthcare professionals, academics, patients, health technology assessment agencies, ethicists and trade associations, as well as international regulators, pharmaceutical companies and small or medium enterprises which have expertise in regulatory science and in developing or applying regulation in healthcare. Subsequently, a descriptive quantitative analyses of survey results and directed thematic analysis of free-text comments were applied. Results Priority areas for UK regulatory science identified by 145 participants included the following: flexibility: the capability of regulations to adapt to novel products and target patient outcomes; co-development: collaboration across sectors, e.g. patients, manufacturers, regulators, and educators working together to develop appropriate training for novel product deployment; responsiveness: the preparation of frameworks which enable timely innovation required by emerging events; speed: the rate at which new products can reach the market; reimbursement: developing effective tools to track and evaluate outcomes for “pay for performance” products; and education and professional development. Conclusions The UK has a time-critical opportunity to establish its national and international strategy for regulatory science leadership by harnessing broader academic input, developing strategic cross-sector collaborations, incorporating patients’ experiences and perspectives, and investing in a skilled workforce.

Religious freedom and the ‘right to discriminate’ in the school admissions context: a neo-republican critique

Legal Studies ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 615-643 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eoin Daly ◽  
Tom Hickey
Keyword(s):  
Public Education ◽  
Religious Freedom ◽  
Religious Discrimination ◽  
Religious Schools ◽  
The Public ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Right ◽  
Republican Theory ◽  
Faith Schools

In law and discourse, it has typically been assumed that the religious freedom of state-funded religious schools must trump any competing right to non-discrimination on grounds of belief. For example, the Irish Constitution has been interpreted as requiring the broad exemption of denominational schools from the statutory prohibition on religious discrimination in school admissions. This stance is mirrored in the UK Equality Act 2010. Thus, religious discrimination in the public education context has been rationalised with reference to a ‘liberty-equality dichotomy’, which prioritises the integrity of faith schools' ‘ethos’, as an imperative of religious freedom. We argue that this familiar conceptual dichotomy generates a novel set of absurdities in this peculiar context. We suggest that the construction of religious freedom and non-discrimination as separate and antagonistic values rests on a conceptually flawed definition of religious freedom itself, which overlooks the necessary dependence of religious freedom on non-discrimination. Furthermore, it overstates the necessity, to religious freedom, of religious schools' ‘right to discriminate’. We argue for an alternative ordering of the values of religious freedom and non-discrimination – which we locate within the neo-republican theory of freedom as non-domination.

Jainism in Danger? Temple entry and the rhetoric of religion and reform in post-colonial India

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-37
Author(s):  
MANISHA SETHI
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
The State ◽  
The Other ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Colonial India ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Debates ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Open The Doors ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract A bitter debate broke out in the Digambar Jain community in the middle of the twentieth century following the passage of the Bombay Harijan Temple Entry Act in 1947, which continued until well after the promulgation of the Untouchability (Offences) Act 1955. These laws included Jains in the definition of ‘Hindu’, and thus threw open the doors of Jain temples to formerly Untouchable castes. In the eyes of its Jain opponents, this was a frontal and terrible assault on the integrity and sanctity of the Jain dharma. Those who called themselves reformists, on the other hand, insisted on the closeness between Jainism and Hinduism. Temple entry laws and the public debates over caste became occasions for the Jains not only to examine their distance—or closeness—to Hinduism, but also the relationship between their community and the state, which came to be imagined as predominantly Hindu. This article, by focusing on the Jains and this forgotten episode, hopes to illuminate the civilizational categories underlying state practices and the fraught relationship between nationalism and minorities.

Subject of Economic Science

2015 ◽  
pp. 115-120
Author(s):  
D. Egorov
Keyword(s):  
Human Behavior ◽  
Classical Theory ◽  
Adam Smith ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Economic Science ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Consciousness ◽  
Wealth Of Nations ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Relationship

Adam Smith defined economics as “the science of the nature and causes of the wealth of nations” (implicitly appealing – in reference to the “wealth” – to the “value”). Neo-classical theory views it as a science “which studies human behavior in terms of the relationship between the objectives and the limited funds that may have a different use of”. The main reason that turns the neo-classical theory (that serves as the now prevailing economic mainstream) into a tool for manipulation of the public consciousness is the lack of measure (elimination of the “value”). Even though the neo-classical definition of the subject of economics does not contain an explicit rejection of objective measures the reference to “human behavior” inevitably implies methodological subjectivism. This makes it necessary to adopt a principle of equilibrium: if you can not objectively (using a solid measurement) compare different states of the system, we can only postulate the existence of an equilibrium point to which the system tends. Neo-classical postulate of equilibrium can not explain the situation non-equilibrium. As a result, the neo-classical theory fails in matching microeconomics to macroeconomics. Moreover, a denial of the category “value” serves as a theoretical basis and an ideological prerequisite of now flourishing manipulative financial technologies. The author believes in the following two principal definitions: (1) economics is a science that studies the economic system, i.e. a system that creates and recombines value; (2) value is a measure of cost of the object. In our opinion, the value is the information cost measure. It should be added that a disclosure of the nature of this category is not an obligatory prerequisite of its introduction: methodologically, it is quite correct to postulate it a priori. The author concludes that the proposed definitions open the way not only to solve the problem of the measurement in economics, but also to address the issue of harmonizing macro- and microeconomics.

scholarly journals Media frames and public perceptions of global poverty in the UK: Is there a link?

2019 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mirjam Vossen ◽  
Lau Schulpen
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Public Perceptions ◽  
Global Poverty ◽  
Media Frames ◽  
The Public ◽  
Governmental Organizations ◽  
Non Governmental Organizations ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract This study investigates the relationship between media frames and public perceptions of global poverty. Building on a frame analysis, the paper reconstructs prevailing poverty narratives in British news articles and non-governmental organizations’ (NGO’s) advertisements between 2011 and 2013. Following this, these narratives are compared with the narratives that emerge from public opinion studies. The findings suggest that there is a strong connection between media frames and public knowledge and perceptions of global poverty. Both the media and the public define poverty in developing countries’ terms of destitute victims, lack of development and bad governance. Both suggest that the causes of poverty are internal to developing countries and imply that there has been little progress in reducing global poverty.

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