[size=14pt]Democracy relies on the concept of the people providing the direction for their governance, indeed the origins of the word democracy come from two words - demos meaning 'common people' and kratos meaning 'rule, strength'.
We have adopted this concept in the form of a representative democracy where the people appoint representatives to enact their will, and act on their behalf in parliament, to resolve the difficulty of how to express the opinions of millions of voices in a coherent fashion.
There are certain constitutional issues where the people may hold a strong view that can be hard to express when appointing someone to act as their representative on a range of issues. In such circumstances it may be appropriate for a referendum to be held, to allow the people to express their view clearly without altering their support of their representatives on other issues.
Convention holds that referendums are advisory and non-binding on parliament.
This clearly is contrary to the principle of people directing their representatives governance, and so legislation should be introduced to make the outcomes of referendums binding on parliament as an expression of the will of the public to their elected representatives. This does not reduce or incapacitate parliament from representing the people in matters where there may not be a clear directive from the population at large, or in non-constitutional issues, whilst simultaneously enhancing the legitimacy of parliament as the representation of the people.
There is an argument that by making referendums binding, this undermines the sovereignty of parliament, but parliament derives its authority to make and impose laws from the assent of the people, and referendums should be restricted to a clearly defined constitutional issue.
For referendums to be seen to be a clear and proper expression of the will of the people, there needs to be clarity of this expression. Consequentially a referendum result should satisfy the following requirements:[/size]
[list][li][size=12pt]That there is a clear majority of opinion[/li]
[li][size=12pt]That this opinion is universally held[/size][/li][/list]
[size=14pt]To satisfy this requirement, for a result to be held as the will of the people it must achieve the following:
[list][li][size=12pt]A majority of at least 55% of the votes cast[/li]
[li][size=12pt]Where it transcends national boundaries, the opinion of each nation should express agreement with the majority opinion.[/li][/list]
[size=14pt]Referendums should be restricted to matters of constitutional importance only, and it remains the preserve of parliament to determine if an issue is of sufficient constitutional importance, and if the public interest warrants that a referendum be called.[/size]
