We explain what a popular consultation is, what forms it can take, its types and in what forms of government it is carried out.
What is a popular consultation?
It is known as popular consultation to the different forms of public deliberation that are taken in the world, as a mechanism of popular participation in decisions politics or social. In other words, it is a mechanism for, precisely, subjecting the Will of the opinion Post a specific topic of importance.
Popular queries are common in the democracy, especially in the forms of direct democracy, and are normally contemplated in the national constitution, which establishes the lapses, dynamics and rules fundamental for its celebration. Instead, in the ways autocratic from government they tend to be rather rare, and unreliable.
The very idea of consulting the will of the people comes from ancient times, especially from the elections of the Roman Republic, or from the deliberation of the Greek Boulé, the council of citizens public decision makers. At present, however, there are the following forms of popular consultation:
- Voting, in which the electorally eligible population expresses its opinion in a secret, direct and universal way, always within what is established by the laws of suffrage.
- Popular legislative initiatives, in which a specific group of citizens are consulted regarding a local legislative decision, or to support or oppose a bill.
- Plebiscites or referendums, massive consultations to the population to decide on a major political controversy or proposal.
On the other hand, popular queries can be of two types:
- Binding, when its result constitutes a political obligation for the rulers.
- Non-binding, when the result is simply an opinion to be taken into account for political leadership, without having the force of law (although it does have a lot of moral weight).