民主性公民投票制度的功能及其局限

民主性公民投票通常是指民主意义上的公民投票,可分为全国性公民投票和地方性公民投票,其议题范围很广,涉及宪法、大选、国际、道德等方面。民主性公民投票的制度功能主要有:增强制约力,保持稳定性,提升正当性,促进参与感。它也存在着制度方面的局限,主要表现在:易导致多数暴力,未必保障人权,未必符合正义,未必避免专制。为正确认识民主性公民投票的制度功能及其局限,要注意以下几点:应真正认清民主性公民投票制度的价值追求;民主性公民投票是非常态的民主表达方式;需要通过其他制度来弥补公民投票制度的不足;防止民主性公民投票制度的滥用。

On the Functions and Limitations of the Democratic Referendum

Democratic referendum usually refers to the referendum in sense of democracy, its topic for discussions usually include: constitution, election, international relations, morality, and so on. The functions of democratic referendum are: strengthening restricting, keeping society stable, heightening legal, and promoting participating. It also has many limitations: easy to causing majority force, not necessarily safeguarding human rights, not necessarily according with justice, and not necessarily avoiding autocracy. In order to correctly understand the functions and the limitations of the democratic referendum, we should notice the below aspects: what the seeking of the democratic referendum is, democratic referendum is the no normal way for democracy, the other ways can be used to make up its deficiency, the abusing of the democratic referendum should be prevented.