Referendums. Although Referendums can provide clear decisive answers on difficult political issues, they also have many disadvantages to them.

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Hari Sethi                                                                                                     Gov/Politics

Mr Hitching                                                                                                  11/10/07

Past Paper Question on Referenda.

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A referendum is a vote on a single issue that is put before the electorate by the government, usually in the form of a question that requires a yes or no answer. Contrastingly an election is the process by which the people of an area (constituency) choose one of many candidates contesting elections, as their representative to hold official offices. They do so by casting their votes, so an election is the choosing of representatives by the people. In a referendum the decision of the electorate is not binding, as the government aren’t bound by the result. However, in an election, the result of the voting is final. Another difference is that an election is not a decision on a single issue, but a decision on which representative has a favoured opinion on many issues. In this way an election affects a far broader number of issues, whereas a referendum is usually just addressing one main issue.

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3 referendums that occurred in the UK in recent years were on the Devolution of Power to Wales (1997), the Good Friday Agreement for Northern Ireland (1998) and the Devolution of Power to Scotland (1997). All produced different outcomes, and different circumstances surrounded each one.

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 The Devolution of Power to Wales was a Pre-legislative referendum in 1997. There was only a 50.1 % turnout, suggesting voter apathy and a lack of knowledge or interest in the subject. The result was extremely indecisive with votes for yes narrowly surpassing those for no (YES: 50.3% -NO: 49.7%). Usually when such an indecisive result occurs, the government spend longer thinking about whether or not to accept the result as valid or to formulate another strategy. However, in this case, the government passed the , creating the .

The Good Friday Agreement in May 1998, was on ...

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