During the last decade the separatist activities of the Catalan nationalists have intensified. Despite the enactment of the Statute of Autonomy in 2006, extending the existing autonomy of the Autonomous Community, Catalonia’s governing political parties strived for total independence. In view of the consistent attitude of the central government in Madrid refusing any concessions on the extension of autonomy or independence, the Autonomous Government of Catalonia (Generalitat) appealed to the institutions of direct democracy, calling twice for a Catalan referendum on independence. In both cases, the Spanish Constitutional Court declared the referendum unlawful. In spite of this, Catalonia declared independence after the referendum of October 1st, 2017, although the effects of the declaration were also suspended – a situation so far unknown to law.

Institutions of direct democracy in the system  of local self-government in the Republic of Belarus

Local self-government in the Republic of Belarus is an institution of constitutional law. It declares functioning of institutions of direct and indirect democracy. The aim of following paper is to describe legal aspects of institutions of direct democracy in the system of local self-government in Belarus including local referendum, local assembly and territorial social self-government. It discusses also problems in implementation of direct democracy mechanisms, relating this with the specificity of nondemocratic political regime in contemporary Belarus.

The Polish law provides for two types of people’s initiative. One type is a people’s initiative of putting a bill before the parliament as provided for in Art. 118 subpar. 2 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland and the Act dated 24 June 1999 on the use of a legislative initiative by citizens. The second type is a people’s initiative of putting forward a motion to hold a legislative referendum regulated by the Act dated 14 March 2003 on holding a national referendum. The legislature did not provide for, however, a people’s initiative for the purpose of amending the constitution or its abrogation. The subject of this paper is the institution of a people’s initiative of putting a bill before the parliament.

Order a nationwide referendum by the President of the Republic of Poland in matters of particular importance to the State (selected problems)

The Constitution of the Republic of Poland of 1997 granted the President of the Republic of Poland the right to order a nationwide referendum on issues of special importance for the state. Managing such a referendum is not made by the President of the Republic of Poland alone but requires the consent of the Senate in the form of a resolution. In Poland, after the adoption of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland in 1997, the institution of the referendum was to use only three times. The last referendum, which is the subject of the analysis was ordered on September 6, 2015. The problem of ordering a referendum by the President of the Republic of Poland, although seemingly obvious, gave birth to a number of practical problems – interpretation used the term “cases of special importance for the country,” judicial supervision of constitutionality and legality of the referendum, the correctness of the formulation of the referendum question.

Assessment of the effectiveness of the  Swiss constitutional popular initiative –  a few remarks regarding the legal framework  based on the analysis of the practical application

The Swiss constitutional popular initiative is often perceived as a prime example of such institution. It is characterized by its direct type (it is directly submitted to the vote of the people), it can be presented in a form of either a draft proposal or an idea for a future amendment, it is not thematically limited and finally, the conditions for its approval are not too rigorous. For its assessment to be complete, its practical application also needs to be analyzed. Since it is only the Federal Constitution that can be amended in a way of the popular initiative, usually the amended provisions need to be subsequently concretized by lower-rang legal acts which can allow the Federal Assembly to neutralize the goals of the initiative committee. In order to assess the effectiveness of this institution, the initiatives submitted to the vote of the people and the cantons between 2001 and 2014 were analyzed, with a particular attention being paid to the accepted initiatives and the subsequent legislative process commenced to enact legal acts aiming at concretizing the constitutional provisions.

The new forms of direct democracy in the polish legal system

This contribution feature issue related to new forms of direct democracy in the polish legal system. Author bring closer constitutive institution of direct democracy in order to present and analyse new forms of citizen’s democracy. In the author’s opinion previous literature connected to the issue of the direct democracy, centre upon the analyse of it’s traditional forms, such as referendum or people’s legislative initiative. However it is possible to notice lack of publication, which content would wholly relate to issue connected with presence of the new forms of direct democracy in the polish legal system. Therefore the purpose of this publication is to cover shown gap. In the view of limiting subject of consideration in this contributon only to polish legal system, the circumstances connected to development of forms of direct democracy in the foreign legal systems not included in the constitution, won’t be brought up.

Local Action Groups as a form of participation at the local level 

Presented paper aims at different forms of civic participation and especially focuses on Local Action Groups. First part of presented paper includes considerations relative to the idea of social participation and practical aspects of its introduction. The follow-up with presented article takes over different forms of civic participation at local level which were provided by legal regulations (direct forms of participatory democracy). The paper also focuses on solutions based on cooperation of sector partners. Local Action Groups, created within the framework of LEADER+Programme, are the example of three-part cooperation. The main purpose of the LAG creation was to support local development in rural areas. The next aspect of mentioned programme was to activate the residents of rural areas. The LAG are interesting subject for further researching because of its special legal status, the way of emergence and the mechanisms of supervision. Established rules of the LAG running, can cause weakening of the idea of the rank-and-file initiative and participation and reducing social community commitment.

The role and importance of the institution of the referendum in contemporary Italy 

The institution of a nationwide referendum in postwar Italy is one of the key elements of the socio-political changes, particularly in the presence of the indolence of the political elite and the so-called process of “unfinished constitutional transition” after 1993. The Constitution of the Italian Republic of 1947 provides for three basic forms of the referendum: a law-repealing referendum, a facultative constitutional referendum and a consultative referendum. Since the enactment of the Law on the referendum and the legislative initiative of 25 May 1970, was conducted in Italy 62 law-repealing referendums, two facultative constitutional referendums, and one consultative referendum. The law-repealing referendums concern such important issues as the introduction of divorce, abortion, artificial insemination, the abolition of life imprisonment, the construction of nuclear power plants until the changes in the financing of political parties and changes in electoral laws for both houses of Parliament. In the constitutional referendum of 2001, the citizens approved the rebuilding of the regional structure of the state, in referendum of 2006 protested against the reform proposals presented by the authorities of a center-right government of Silvio Berlusconi. The only one consultative referendum concern approved the creation of the European Parliament. By reason of the importance of issues raised and the number carried out the referendum, especially in recent years, Italy is often referred to as “the republic of referendums”. However, the sore point of this form of direct democracy is decreasing voter participation, which leads to the absence of a quorum thus void consultation in case of a law-repealing referendum. Since 1997, the last 25 law-repealing referendums did not reach the required quorum, which raises further questions about the future of this institution.

The right of petition in Poland

The right of petition in Poland is a law resulting from art. 63 of the Constitution of 2 April 1997. The author shows the bill on petitions prepared by the Senate, indicating that yet there have not been made the constitutional announcement in this regard. The paper also shows examples of the types, scope and functions of the petition in different jurisdictions. Right to petition is also a constitutional law in Belgium, Spain, Italy, Slovenia, Denmark, Portugal, Slovakia, Greece, Macedonia, Ukraine, Lithuania, France. It should be emphasized that there are different forms of possible instances of the citizen to the authorities: the petition, complaint and request. In various countries the situation is unstable. Frequently the petitions have been defined. Sometimes, however, terms petition and complaint are terms used interchange- ably. But mostly, where the laws on petitions are enacted, such definition exists.,eg. in the Czech Republic, Russia, Hungary.

The Application of Popular Initiative in the Swiss Confederation

The institutions of direct democracy are being applied in the Swiss Confederation on a scale that is incomparable with any other country. The popular initiative itself is being used by various interest groups, as well as by political parties, at least a few times each year. This article aims at presenting in a complex manner both legal and practical aspects of the popular initiative’s application in the Swiss Confederation. The first part of the article deals with the origin and the development of the direct democracy institutions throughout the years. In the next part the legal regulations concerning the popular initiative and the proceedings relating to it (from its submission to results’ publication and possibilities of their verification) are being presented. The following fragment of the article describes the interest groups and political parties submitting the initiatives and also initiatives’ objects. The article is concluded by the presentation of the various purposes, which popular initiative can serve, apart from its aim to amend the Federal Constitution.

Constitutional forms of the nation’s activity in exercise of public authority

Constitutional forms of the nation’s activity in the process of executing public authority The aim of the paper is to present a complete and consistent classification of forms of activity of the nation as the collective subject of sovereign authority in the process of exercising public authority stipulated in the Constitution of the Republic of Poland of 2nd April 1997. The proposed typology of these forms is based on the uniform criterion – the legal effect of the formulated will of the community. Using this criterion leads to isolating two main dimensions of the above-mentioned activity of the nation. In the first of them, the nation acts as the actual sovereign and consequently, their acts of will have an absolutely decisive character. This occurs when – in accordance with Article 4 section 2 of the Constitution – the nation „exercises such power directly or through their representatives”, which means within the framework of so-called representative democracy (particularly electing their representatives and calling the previous mandataries to account for their achievements in the finishing term of office by means of the next election, and in the case of territorial selfgovernment bodies, also by means of the institution of revocability), or „directly” (by way of a referendum). All the other forms of social activity provided for in the Constitution of the Republic of Poland and otherwise involve the cooperation of citizens and groups of citizens in executing power by public authority bodies, both representative and non-representative ones. Due to their consultative power or merely inspirational character, they can be collectively referred to as „expressing opinions and providing inspiration in the matter of exercising public authority”.

Referendum and What’s Next? On the Result of the Nationwide Referendum and Its Effects

In this article, the Author focused on analyzing the consequences of referendum decisions on the basis of Polish constitutional law, including the manner of their implementation into the Polish legal order, if such actions are necessary. He indicates that a significant complication related to the implementation of the referendum result is the inability to directly adopt laws in a referendum in the Polish political system, as well as imprecise regulations contained in the Act on National Referendum. He also states that it is worth considering to define the threshold for the binding nature of the referendum on the basis of the level of support for the winning solution instead of the turnout in the popular vote. This would prevent the tactical absence, which under current conditions may lead to the lack of binding nature of such referendum. The danger is also caused by the lack of a grace period that would not allow for a specified period of time to implement legislative amendments violating the referendum result. This creates an essential fiction of the final result of such a referendum.

Is a Referendum a Threat to the Democratic Order? Reflections on Polish Legal Regulation and Referendum Practice Against the Background of the Latest Opinions of Foreign Doctrine of Constitutional Law and Political Sciences

In the latest literature on the subject, one can notice an increase in interest in direct democracy on the one hand, and on the other – a clear increase in the skepticism of researchers towards the idea of making binding and important decisions for the state by popular vote. The purpose of this article is to present and analyze the latest views of foreign doctrine of constitutional law (and, in addition: political science) about the institution of the referendum and to compare them with the (general) analysis of the legal regulation of this institution in Poland, as well as to present the real impact of referendums on the decision-making process and public policies in Poland. As a result, an attempt will be made to assess the Polish legal regulation of referendum institutions in terms of their effectiveness on the one hand, and potential threats (or resistance to threats) to the democratic order on the other. Although direct democracy, and especially a referendum, have a wide range of critics in the scientific community accusing it of even being anti-democratic, radical proposals calling for the complete abolition of referendums are rare. The postulates of appropriate changes in the legal regulation concerning the referendum prevail in order to make it resistant to dangerous modern phenomena: populism, political cynicism, manipulation and propaganda. The implementation of all postulates for changes reported by representatives of science will be very difficult. Noticing this fact may cause that the referendum will become a decision-making procedure very rarely launched. This seems to be the intention of researchers who submit their proposals and reservations – that direct democracy should be only an exception to representative democracy and that the former should not be used against the latter.

Citizen Initiated Referendum and Polish Referendum Law

The main aim of this study is to respond to the call to give citizens the power to initiate a referendum in a binding way. The key question in this context is whether such a postulate should not be treated as just a typical manifestation of political populism and thus rejected, or whether it should be supported by recognizing the institution of a referendum initiated by the citizens as a factor conducive to a more complete implementation of the idea of democratic rule, without threatening the destabilization and dysfunctionality of the political system. The analysis carried out in the article proves that this institution cannot be discredited because it should be seen as a necessary element of the process of exercising power in a democratic state. The proposed legal regulation may be conducive to achieving such a role in Polish political practice.

On the basis of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland, the binding effect of the result of the vote in a nationwide referendum depends on attainment the attendance threshold. This threshold was determined as participation in a referendum of more than half of persons entitled to vote. The systemic argumentation in favor of establishing this threshold proves to be weak and unconvincing. The constitutional regulation is characterised in this scope by inconsistency in the form of not covering the constitutional referendum by the requirement of the attendance threshold. Furthermore, the desire to ensure the legal effectiveness of the outcome of the vote in the referendum results in extending time of the vote in the referendum. The conclusion includes the proposal to introduce an amendment to the Constitution consisting in resigning from the threshold in question.

Referendum Votes in Romania – Success or Failure of Direct Democracy?

In the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, the institution of a referendum is the most popular tool of direct democracy used in the decision-making process. We can see the extension of the scope of issues that are put to the vote, in addition to traditional issues, the subject of a referendum are issues that strongly polarize public opinion and evoke significant emotions. The article presents the political practice of referendum votes in Romania. In the years 1991–2019, eight votes were held on the most important issues of public life, including the recall of the president twice Traiana Băsescu. The matters put to the vote to a large extent result from the existing conflicts in the ruling camp, between the president and the government and parliament, as well as from party rivalry and preferred issues consistent with the party’s programs and social expectations.

Institution of Recall – a Tool of Democracy or a Toy in the Hands of the Opposition?

The subject of the study is one of the institutions of direct democracy sensu stricto – recall, which operates in Poland at the level of local government. This article is an attempt to answer the question whether this institution should be introduced into the Polish legal system at the national level. In order to answer the above question, it is necessary to present the principles of the functioning of this institution in other countries. The use of the comparative legal method allows for the submission of a postulate to introduce such an institution into the Polish legal system. However, only practice would show whether it would become another form of direct democracy or a tool in the hands of the opposition.

Problems of the Legal Structure of the Participatory Budgeting

The article subjected the regulation of the participatory budget to a critical analysis as internally contradictory and controversial (including constitutional doubts). It pointed out some resulting paradoxes and discrepancies between practice and jurisprudence in fundamental issues: the eligible participants and the permissibility of using specific personal data. Because such a state of affairs is unacceptable in a democratic legal state and attempts to resolve it through interpretative means have not yielded satisfactory results, selected arguments for providing participatory budgeting with new legal framework are presented. It also highlighted some benefits that could arise from regulating the participatory budget within electoral law (as a distinct type of local referendum) and proposed in an outline some specific solutions.

October 15, 2023 – a celebration or failure of direct democracy?

This publication aims to present the most important problems that occurred in connection with the referendum, which, despite numerous voices of opposition, took place on October 15, 2023. It was also the day on which elections to the Sejm and Senate were to be held. Therefore, the authors decided not to refer to or comment on the extensive discussion of doctrinal issues related to the referendum, but to address only the practical dimension of the vote held in order to formulate de lege lata conclusions. The subject of the analysis was the issue of the validity and binding nature of the referendum, as well as the issue of the refusal of the voter to collect the referendum ballot in connection with the implementation of the principle of secrecy of the vote, which provokes many controversial assessments.