Plebiscites, Referendums, and Ballot Initiatives as Institutions of Popular Sovereignty

Rousseau's Influence on Competing Theories of Popular-Vote Processes

Bibliographic Data

ID6397702
AuthorsSpencer Mckay (0000-0001-5650-4636, Queen's University, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume85
Issue1
Pages23-47
Publication date2023-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Review of Politics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0034-6705 • E-ISSN: 1748-6858
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0034670522000912
OpenAlexW4303962096
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited31

Popular-vote processes — such as plebiscites, referendums, and initiatives — are frequently understood as Rousseauian instruments of popular sovereignty. Yet, Rousseau did not theorize these devices himself. As a result, he has been claimed by proponents of competing theories of popular-vote processes. Theorists of sleeping sovereignty have claimed Rousseau's distinction between sovereignty and government in support of rare, constitutional referendums. Theorists of direct democracy invoke Rousseau's criticism of representation to demand frequent referendums. Plebiscitarianism casts Rousseau's general will as demanding the unification of the nation in one popularly legitimated leader through top-down plebiscites. Lastly, Condorcet's proposal for the “censure of the people” outlines how the sovereign could initiate popular votes itself in order to check the power of the government. I contend that Condorcet's account provides the most compelling link between Rousseau's account of popular sovereignty and the institutional design of popular-vote processes

Condorcet method · General Will · Law and economics · Political science · Politics · Popular sovereignty · Power (physics · Sociology · Sovereignty · Voting · Law · Political Theory and Influence · Rousseau and Enlightenment Thought · Seventeenth-Century Political and Philosophical Thought

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