In many countries, citizens have the power to propose new laws oramendments to their constitutions by popular initiatives. Provided that they have a special legitimacy, they are often regulated by different procedures to the legislation enacted by the legislature and may be used by their proponents to avoid the restrictions that the “ordinary” legislation is subject to. Recently, this has led that several popular initiatives which have come into conflict with the rights of minorities, fundamental rights of other affected groups, and other constitutional guarantees have been submitted. From the perspective of a comparative analysis, this article explores whether the laws in Switzerland and California set the procedural and substantive restrictions to this mechanism of direct democracy and to what extent. In this context, the author questionswhether the scope and enjoyment of fundamental rights may be subject to popular initiatives. Finally, several recommendations are made to improve the legal limits of popular initiatives and their control mechanisms to ensure that the scope and enjoyment of fundamental rights are not subject to the contentof popular initiatives. / En muchos países, los ciudadanos tienen la facultad de proponer nuevas leyes o modificaciones a la Constitución mediante iniciativas populares. Dado que las mismas gozan de una legitimación especial muchas veces se regulan por procedimientos diferentes a la legislación promulgada por la legislatura y pueden ser usados por sus proponentes para esquivar las restricciones a las que la legislación «ordinaria» está sujeta. Eso ha llevado a que, recientemente, se han presentado varias iniciativas populares que han entrado en conflicto con los derechos de las minorías, derechos fundamentales de otros grupos afectados, y otras garantías constitucionales. Desde una perspectiva de análisis comparativo, este artículo explora si las legislaciones en Suiza y California establecen restricciones procedimentales y sustantivas a este mecanismo de democracia directa y en qué medida. En este contexto, cuestiona si el alcance y el disfrute de los derechos fundamentales pueden estar sujetos a iniciativas populares. Finalmente, este artículo hace ciertas recomendaciones destinadas a mejorar los límites legales de las iniciativas populares y de sus mecanismos de control para garantizar que el alcance y el disfrute de los derechos fundamentales no estén sujetos al contenido de iniciativas populares.

Trata a presente tese de estudo acerca do instituto denominado recall, existente nos Estados Unidos da América do Norte, que constitui mecanismo que permite a destituição de autoridades públicas e a revogação de decisões judiciais, por meio de decisão popular. O ineditismo da tese decorre do aprofundamento que se fez sobre o tema, bem como da análise minuciosa sobre as condições de aplicação desse instituto no Brasil. Para compreensão integral do objeto em análise, inicialmente, buscou-se compreender o fenômeno da representação política, não só sob o aspecto jurídico-formal como também pelo aspecto histórico, político e social. As teorias acerca da representação política são abordadas dentro de uma perspectiva evolutiva, histórica, desde os seus traços primitivos nas sociedades antigas, passando pelas instruções e mandato imperativo do período medieval, até as concepções de Hobbes, Locke, Burke e Siéyès, não deixando de lado as posições mais modernas e os dilemas existentes sobre o tema. Busca-se também a essência desse mecanismo denominado recall. Para tanto, torna-se obrigatória a passagem pelas suas origens e pela sua configuração jurídica, que se encontra relacionada com o princípio federativo, os sistemas eleitorais, sua caracterização como direito político, instituto de democracia participativa e semidireta, bem como seu caráter sancionador e como forma de expressão da oposição política. Faz-se, além disso, uma análise comparativa do recall no direito contemporâneo. Inicialmente focando o instituto nos Estados Unidos da América do Norte, pelo âmbito de aplicação do instituto na Federação norte-americana, as hipóteses e procedimentos de cada Estado-membro (onde se permite o instituto) e os resultados gerais de sua aplicação. Analisar-se-á, outrossim, institutos semelhantes ao recall existentes em outros sistemas jurídicos. Ao final, será tratada a questão relacionada ao recall e o sistema jurídico brasileiro, apresentando-se a história da revogação do mandato político no país, o panorama jurídico pelo aspecto federativo e dos sistemas eleitorais, bem como as condições para viabilizar a aplicação do instituto no Brasil. Tudo isso, para se demonstrar que o recall deve ser um mecanismo democrático a ser utilizado por eleitores responsáveis contra eleitos irresponsáveis. / This dissertation focuses on the mechanism referred to as recall, which exists in the United States of America, and is a mechanism that provides for the removal of public officials and the repeal of judicial decisions by means of public opinion. The originality of this dissertation arises out of the further understanding of the subject, as well as of the thorough analysis of the conditions under which such mechanism could be applied in Brazil. In order to fully understand the analyzed object, it was first necessary to understand the phenomenon of political representation, not only from the formal-legal aspect, but also from the historical, political and social perspectives. The theories on political representation are approached from a historical-developing standpoint, from its primitive traces in ancient societies, to the medieval instruments and imperative mandate, to the ideas of Hobbes, Locke, Burke and Siéyès, in addition to the more modern schools of thought and existing dilemmas on the subject-matter. The dissertation also focuses on the essence of the recall mechanism. In order to do so, it was necessary to examine its origins and its legal configuration, which has to do with the federative principle, the electoral systems, its characterization as public law, participatory and semi-direct democracy, as well as its sanctioning ability and political opposition form of expression. Furthermore, the comparative analysis of recall in contemporary law is also carried out. The assessment is initially focused on the mechanism in the United States of America, as per its application in the North American Federation, the hypotheses and procedures of each Member-State (in which the mechanism is provided for) and the general results of its application. Moreover, similar mechanisms available in other legal systems are also analyzed. Finally, the issue of the recall mechanism and the Brazilian legal system is assessed, through the history of the repeal of political mandates in the country, its legal framework on the federative aspect and the electoral systems, as well as the conditions necessary in order to render the application of the recall mechanism in Brazil feasible. The objective is to demonstrate that the recall mechanism should be a democratic mechanism to be used by responsible voters against irresponsible elected officials.

The aim and research questions of this study are concerned about how, and what kind of, problems and subjects that citizens raise during verbal interaction with politicians and officials in the field of participatory democracy. The theoretical framework of the study dominates by theories with a positive approach towards participatory democracy, but there is also a broader discussion on the phenomenon’s strengths and weaknesses. The case in focus of the study is a specific phenomenon of participatory democracy created by the municipality of Växjö. The empirical material that is analysed is consisted of written text based on the verbal interaction from these meetings between citizens and politicians/officials. The outcome of the study shows that most of the verbal interaction was held between citizens and politicians/officials in a vertical direction and that a major part of the responsibility concerning the raised subjects is estimated to be in the hands of the latter part. In the light of under what circumstances the meetings are practised, the democratic and collective minded performance of the citizens is argued to be in good condition, despite the dominating vertical interaction and estimation of trust.

This thesis deals with the theme of bilateral relations between the EU and Switzerland, focusing on the current phenomenon of migration. The EU and Switzerland cooperate on bilateral sectoral basis, since Switzerland (hence the citizens of Switzerland) does not want to integrate into the European internal market to maintain its sovereignty and autonomy. Within the first series of bilateral agreements between the EU and Switzerland an agreement on free movement of persons was signed, thereby Switzerland opened its labour market to EU citizens. In February 2014, however, the citizens of Switzerland used the institution of direct democracy and adopted by a narrow majority the initiative to stop mass immigration. This step disrupted the agreement on free movement of persons and the complex negotiations started in order to solve this impasse. The aim of the thesis is to evaluate the impacts of immigration on the Swiss economy and the subsequent evaluation of the reasonableness to mitigate the immigration through a citizens' initiative.

County jurisdictions in America are increasingly exercising self-government in the provision of public community services through the context of second order federalism. In states exercising this form of contemporary governance, county governments with “reformed” policy-making structures and professional management practices, have begun to rival or surpass municipalities in the delivery of local services with regional implications such as environmental protection (Benton 2002, 2003; Marando and Reeves, 1993). The voter referendum, a form of direct democracy, is an important component of county land preservation and environmental protection governmental policies. The recent growth and success of land preservation voter referendums nationwide reflects an increase in citizen participation in government and their desire to protect vacant land and its natural environment from threats of over-development, urbanization and sprawl, loss of open space and farmland, deterioration of ecosystems, and inadequate park and recreational amenities. The study’s design employs a sequential, mixed method. First, a quantitative approach employs the Heckman two-step model. It is fitted with variables for the non-random sample of 227 voter referendum counties and all non-voter referendum counties in the U.S. from 1988 to 2009. Second, the qualitative data collected from the in-depth investigation of three South Florida county case studies with twelve public administrator interviews is transformed for integration with the quantitative findings. The purpose of the qualitative method is to complement, explain and enrich the statistical analysis of county demographic, socio-economic, terrain, regional, governance and government, political preference, environmentalism, and referendum-specific factors. The research finds that government factors are significant in terms of the success of land preservation voter referendums; more specifically, the presence of self-government authority (home rule charter), a reformed structure (county administrator/manager or elected executive), and environmental interest groups. In addition, this study concludes that successful counties are often located coastal, exhibit population and housing growth, and have older and more educated citizens who vote democratic in presidential elections. The analysis of case study documents and public administrator interviews finds that pragmatic considerations of timing, local politics and networking of regional stakeholders are also important features of success. Further research is suggested utilizing additional public participation, local government and public administration factors.

The diploma thesis Local Referendum in the European Area offers a comprehensive overview of the legal regulation of the institute of local referendum in individual European countries. In four parts devoted to Central, Southern, Western and Northern Europe, it introduces the regulation of this institute in the local legal systems and compares individual solutions not only with the Czech regulation, but across all European states. It deals in detail with individual aspects of the local referendum, including its announcement, binding force and the possibility of a popular initiative.

The diploma paper represents a contribution to the research of direct democracy in the Czech Republic, specifically it deals with the most used form of direct citizen participation in governance, local referendum. The paper is mainly empirical - it shows an experience of ten European countries with local referendum as well as the legislative framework and the definition of this instrument in the Czech Republic. The centre point of the whole thesis lies in the real practice and the experience of Czech municipalities with local direct democracy. The data used in this paper come up from research which aimed to collect information on all local referendums in the Czech Republic since 1990. Although this aim has not been fully accomplished, the data allow to study the practice of Czech local referendums. Local referendums are divided into several groups (categories of territorial changes, the environment, issues of internal governance of the municipality and others) within which are further analysed. The aim of the paper is to verify the hypothesis that seeks a relationship among the size of the municipality, subject of voting, quorum and voter turnout. The paper also focuses on the factors that have got fundamental impact on the final result of referendum.

Historiquement sceptique au sujet d’une intégration à la Communauté Européenne, la Suisse s’est engagée ces vingt dernières années sur une voie de rapprochement, à travers les premiers accords bilatéraux signés en 1999 dont un des chapitres fondamentaux est la libre circulation des personnes. Certains ont vu dans cet engagement un premier pas vers une intégration toujours plus étroite avec l’Union Européenne (UE), d’autres une nécessaire concession pour permettre à la Suisse de préserver sa souveraineté tout en bénéficiant des opportunités économiques du géant européen. Que ce soit par le premier volet des accords bilatéraux précédemment évoqué ou par le second volet entériné en 2004, une volonté politique forte a prévalu de la part de la classe politique suisse pour un rapprochement avec l’Union Européenne. Dans ce cadre, la spécificité helvétique a fait que le peuple a été amené à se prononcer sur ces jalons essentiels de la coopération grandissante entre la Suisse et l’UE. C’est ainsi que les partis politiques ont du se livrer à une compétition ardue opposant le camp en faveur de l’ouverture à l’UE à leurs détracteurs, farouches opposants à tout accord bilatéral présenté par l’UE. Ainsi, entre 1999 et 2014, le peuple suisse a été sollicité à huit reprises par voie de référendum pour se prononcer sur la poursuite des accords bilatéraux, cette « troisième voie » à mi-chemin de l’isolationnisme et de l’intégration européenne, entre leur pays et l’UE. Durant ces quinze années et au gré de ces campagnes référendaires, les partis politiques ont été amenés à se positionner sur chacun de ses objets en produisant un matériel de campagne conséquent portant sur l’UE. La période 1999-2014 correspond donc à un ‘momentum’, une période intense autour de l’enjeu européen. Ces huit votations ont mises en avant un aspect des relations bilatérales entre la Suisse et l’Union Européenne. Le thème de cette recherche s’inscrit ainsi dans l’analyse de la représentation de l’UE et des dynamiques de compétition en Suisse à travers l’étude du discours que les partis politiques majeurs de la vie politique suisse ont tenu aucours des campagnes référendaires dites ‘européennes’. / Known to be reluctant on European integration, Switzerland has been taking significant steps towards rapprochement with the European Union (EU) over the last twenty years through the first bilateral agreements signed in 1999, one of the fundamental chapters of which is the free movement of persons. On the one hand, this has been considered by some scholars and political observers as a first commitment towards an ever closer integration with the EU. On the other hand, some have seen through this agreement a necessary concession allowing Switzerland to preserve its sovereignty while benefiting from the economic opportunities of the European giant. Whether through the first set of bilateral agreements previously mentioned or the second set endorsed in 2004, a strong political will has prevailed from the Swiss political elite for a rapprochement with the European Union. In this context, the specificity of the country has led the Swiss people to decide on these crucial milestones about thegrowing cooperation between Switzerland and the EU. This is why the political parties had to engage in a though competition opposing those in favor of more EU and those being euro-skeptical, fierce opponents of any bilateral agreement presented by the EU. Consequently, the Swiss people have been involved eight times between 1999 and 2014 into referendum voting to decide if bilateral agreements and European integration should be pursued. This is known to be the Swiss "third way", halfway between isolationism and European integration. During these fifteen years, the political parties had to develop their arguments and strategies on every EU topic brought into the political arena. Hence, a sizeable amount of texts, speeches and discourses have been produced in the framework of these campaigns about the EU. The period 1999-2014 fits to a 'momentum', an intense period around the European challenge. These eight referendums shed the light on an essential aspect of the bilateral relations between Switzerland and the European Union. The scope of this research is about the analysis of the EU representation and competition dynamics in Switzerland through the study of the discourse that the major political parties of the Swiss political arena have been producing during the 'European' campaigns of these referendums.

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