Moving Away from the Ideal: The Rational Use of Referendums in the Baltic States

Most theories on the use of referendum focus on its democratic virtues. With this point of reference the article analyses the causes of variation in the use of referendums in Latvia and Lithuania since independence. It shows that the referendum has been part of a rational strategy of political parties. Differences in the degree of polarization within the party systems created different incentive structures. As a result, parties in Latvia followed the defensive decision–controlling strategy, trying to prevent decisions made by the opposition from being carried out, while in Lithuania the parties sought to get their own proposals adopted through the decision–promoting strategy. The results reported in this article do not represent a universal explanation for the use of referendum as it is acknowledged that significant differences do exist between transition countries and consolidated democracies, but they do constitute a first step in new theory building.