Other formats

    Adobe Portable Document Format file (facsimile images)   TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

Salient: An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington, N.Z. Vol. 12, No. 5, June 8th, 1949.

[Introduction]

The Prime Minister wants his answer. And, of course, when people as influential as Prime Ministers want anything, they have ways of getting what they want. And so the country faces another referendum.

It has met with a mixed reception, this referendum business. Mr. Holland argues that everyone wants it and the Government should therefore go ahead and do what it wishes without delay. The Government can argue, on the face of things, that it is applying direct democracy by asking the people themselves what they want. And, of course in days when merely to suggest that word 'democracy' is to wrap ones beliefs in an odour of sanctity, the Prime Minister has got a powerful justification for his action. However, referenda were not unknown in countries like pre-war Germany whose beliefs were not quite democratic. I will try to show that this referendun should have all the hall marks which distinguish a democratic referendum from a non-democratic one. So what would we ask of this ideal referendum?

First, that it be fairly taken (in the narrow technical sense, that is). No-one seriously supposes, I think, that Mr. Fraser or any of his opponents are going to indulge in ballot rigging; this question is not therefore of any great import here. Could the referendum be carried out unfairly even if these technicalities were observed? The answer unfortunately is Yes—and still more unfortunately, it looks very much as though it is going to be carried out in this way.