Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-13T14:25:20.503Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Plebiscites: a tool for dictatorship

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 December 2021

Alberto Penadés Open the ORCID record for Alberto Penadés [Opens in a new window]  and
Sergio Velasco Open the ORCID record for Sergio Velasco [Opens in a new window]
Alberto Penadés*
Affiliation:
Universidad de Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain
Sergio Velasco
Affiliation:
Universidad de Valladolid, Valladolid, Spain
*
*E-mail: penades@usal.es
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The comparative study of authoritarianism has neglected plebiscites, and the comparative study of referendums tends to see in them a form of direct democracy regardless of the regime. We conceptualize dictatorial plebiscites as a genuine authoritarian tool, as part of a repressive strategy with the objective of hindering internal regime rivals and discouraging the coordination of the external opposition. We provide empirical evidence from dictatorships for the period 1946–2008 that is compatible with our expectations.

Keywords

Plebiscitesauthoritarianisminstitutionalism
Type
Research Article
Information
European Political Science Review , Volume 14 , Issue 1 , February 2022 , pp. 74 - 93
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of European Consortium for Political Research

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alesina, A., Devleeschauwer, A., Easterly, W., Kurlat, S. and Wacziarg, R. (2003), ‘Fractionalization’, Journal of Economic Growth 8: 155–194.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Altman, D. (2010), Direct Democracy Worldwide, New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barros, R. (2002), Constitutionalism and Dictatorship: Pinochet, the Junta, and the 1980 Constitution, New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boix, C. and Svolik, M.W. (2013), ‘The foundations of limited authoritarian government: institutions, commitment, and power-sharing in dictatorships’, The Journal of Politics 75(2): 300–316.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bratton, M. and Lambright, G. (2001), ‘Uganda’s referendum 2000: the silent Boycott’, African Affairs 100(400): 429–452.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caramani, D. (2017), ‘Will vs. Reason: the populist and technocratic forms of political representation and their critique to party government’, American Political Science Review 111(1): 54–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cardoso, F.H. and Faletto, E. (1979), Dependency and Development in Latin America, Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Centola, D., Willer, R. and Macy, M. (2005), ‘The Emperor’s Dilemma: a computational model of self-enforcing norms’, American Journal of Sociology 110(4): 1009–1040.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cheibub, J.A., Gandhi, J. and Vreeland, J.R. (2010), ‘Democracy and dictatorship revisited’, Public Choice 143(1–2): 67–101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cheneval, F. and el-Walik, A. (2018a), ‘Introduction to the debate: do referendums enhance or threaten democracy?’, Swiss Political Science Review 24(3): 291–293.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cheneval, F. and el-Walik, A. (2018b), ‘The institutional design of referendums: bottom-up and binding’, Swiss Political Science Review 24(3): 294–304.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chwe, M.S. (1999), ‘Structure and strategy in collective action’, American Journal of Sociology 105(1): 128–156.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chwe, M.S. (2001), Rational Ritual: Culture, Coordination and Common Knowledge, Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Coppedge, M., Gerring, J., Knutsen, C.H., Lindberg, S.I., Teorell, J., Altman, D., Bernhard, M., Fish, M.S., Glynn, A., Hicken, A., Lührmann, A., Marquardt, K.L., McMann, K., Paxton, P., Pemstein, D., Seim, B., Sigman, R., Skaaning, S.E., Staton, J., Cornell, A., Gastaldi, L., Gjerløw, H., Mechkova, V., Römer, J., Sundtröm, A., Tzelgov, E., Uberti, L., Wang, Y., Wig, T. and Ziblatt, D. (2020), ‘V-Dem codebook v10’. Varieties of democracy (V-Dem) project. Retrieved from https://www.v-dem.net/en/data/archive/previous-data/v-dem-dataset/ CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dominioni, S. (2017), ‘The mechanism of direct democracy in authoritarian countries: the case of the constitutional referendum in Azerbaijan’, Demokratizatsiya: The Journal of Post-Soviet Democratization 25(4): 435–454.Google Scholar
Efimenco, N.M. (1955), ‘An experiment with Civilian dictatorship in Iran: the case of Mohammed Mossadegh’, The Journal of Politics 17(3): 390–406.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gandhi, J. (2008), Political Institutions under Dictatorship, New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gandhi, J. and Lust-Okar, E. (2009), ‘Elections under authoritarianism’, Annual Review of Political Science 12: 403–422.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gandhi, J. and Przeworski, A. (2006), ‘Cooperation, co-optation, and rebellion under dictatorships’, Economics & Politics 18(1): 1–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gandhi, J. and Przeworski, A. (2007), ‘Authoritarian institutions and the survival of autocrats’, Comparative Political Studies 40(11): 1279–1301.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Geddes, B., Wright, J. and Frantz, E. (2018), How Dictatorships Work, New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gillespie, C.G. (1985), ‘Uruguay’s return to democracy’, Bulletin of Latin American Research 4(2): 99–107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haber, S. and Menaldo, V. (2011), ‘Do natural resources fuel authoritarianism? A reappraisal of the resource curse’, American Political Science Review 105(1): 1–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hug, S. and Tsebelis, G. (2002), ‘Veto players and referendums around the world’, Journal of Theoretical Politics 14(4): 465–515.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kalaycıoğlu, E. (2012), ‘Kulturkampf in Turkey: the constitutional referendum of 12 September 2010’, South European Society and Politics 17(1): 1–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuran, T. (1997), Private Truths, Public Lies: The Social Consequences of Preference Falsification, Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Lagacé, C.B. and Gandhi, J. (2015), ‘Authoritarian institutions’, in Gandhi, J. and Ruiz-Rufino, R. (eds.), Routledge Handbook of Comparative Political Institutions, Oxford: Routledge, pp. 278–291.Google Scholar
Penadés, A. (2017), ‘Referéndums y democracia representativa’, in Albertos, J.F., Damiani, G. and González, F. (eds.), ¿Quién manda aquí? Los retos de la democracia representativa (Referendums and Representative Democracy), Barcelona: Debate, pp. 215–242.Google Scholar
Penfold, M. (2010), ‘La democracia subyugada: El hiperpresidencialismo venezolano (The subjugation of democracy: Venezuelan hyper-pesidentialism)’, Revista De Ciencia Política 30(1): 21–40.Google Scholar
Pepinsky, Th. (2014), ‘The institutional turn in comparative authoritarianism’, British Journal of Political Science 44(3): 631–653.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Przeworski, A. (1986), ‘Some problems in the study of the transition to democracy’, in O’Donnell, G., Schmitter, P.C. and Whitehead, L. (eds.), Transitions from Authoritarian Rule: Comparative Perspectives, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 47–63.Google Scholar
Qvortrup, M. (ed.) (2018), Referendums around the World, Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Qvortrup, M. (2020b), ‘Plebiscites’, in Encyclopedia Princetoniensis: The Princeton Encyclopedia of Self-Determination. Retrieved October 2020 from https://pesd.princeton.edu/node/571 Google Scholar
Qvortrup, M., Morris, C. and Kobori, M. (2018), ‘Australasia’, in Qvortrup, M. (ed.), Referendums around the World, Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 237–262.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Qvortrup, M., O’Leary, B. and Wintrobe, R. (2020a), ‘Explaining the paradox of plebiscites’, Government and Opposition 55(2): 202–219.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Randjbar-Daemi, S. (2017), ‘Down with the Monarchy: Iran’s republican moment of August 1953’, Iranian Studies 50(2): 293–313.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rilla, J. (1997), ‘Uruguay 1980. Transición y democracia plebiscitaria (Uruguay 1980: Democratic transition and plebiscitarian democracy)’, Nueva Sociedad 150: 77–83.Google Scholar
Romero-Pérez, F. (2009), Campañas de propaganda en dictadura y democracia. Referendos y elecciones de 1947 a 1978 (Propaganda campaings under dictatorship and democracy. Referendums and elections from 1947 to 1978). PhD theses. Madrid: Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia.Google Scholar
Rozenas, A. (2012) ‘Forcing consent: information and power in non-democratic elections’. Working Paper. New York University. Unpublished Manuscript. Retrieved from https://scholar.google.es/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=ca&user=XlzrvgcAAAAJ&citation_for_view=XlzrvgcAAAAJ:GnPB-g6toBAC Google Scholar
Sánchez-Cuenca, I. (2014), Atado y mal atado: El suicidio institucional del franquismo y el surgimiento de la democracia (Tied but not Well Tied: Francoism's Institutional Suicide and the Advent of Democracy), Madrid: Alianza.Google Scholar
Scott, J.C. (1990), Domination and The Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts, New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Silitski, V. (2005), ‘Preempting democracy: the case of Belarus’, The Journal of Democracy 16(4): 83–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simpser, A. (2013), Why Governments and Parties Manipulate Elections: Theory, Practice, and Implications, New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Suárez, L. (2001), Franco: crónica de un tiempo. Victoria frente al bloqueo (Franco: A chronicle of the time. Victory in the face of blockade), Madrid: Actas.Google Scholar
Svolik, M.W. (2012), The Politics of Authoritarian Rule, New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, K.A., DeScioli, P., Haque, O.S. and Pinker, S. (2014), ‘The psychology of coordination and common knowledge’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 107(4): 657–676.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Trueblood, L. (2020), ‘Are referendums directly democratic?’, Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 40(3): 425–448.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walker, M.C. (2003), The Strategic Use of Referendums: Power, Legitimacy, and Democracy, New York: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Willer, R., Kuwabara, K. and Macy, M.W. (2009), ‘The false enforcement of unpopular norms’, American Journal of Sociology 115(2): 451–490.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wintrobe, R. (1998), The Political Economy of Dictatorship, New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar