CAN THE BRITISH VOTER BE TRUSTED? THE LOCAL REFERENDUM AND TAX REFORM |
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| Authors: | EUGENE C. LEE |
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| Affiliation: | Eugene C. Lee is the Director of the Institute of Governmental Studies, and Professor of Political Science, University of California, Berkeley. |
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| Abstract: | This paper begins with an examination of the period, during 1981, when the then Secretary of State for the Environment proposed a local referendum mechanism that would be triggered whenever a local authority attempted to increase its rates above a ceiling fixed by central government. This episode is then used as a basis for a broader examination of the possible applications of local referenda within the context of political systems that are dominantly based on notions of representative democracy. American experience is drawn upon to support the proposal that, in carefully defined circumstances, local referenda could constitute useful additions to the existing mechanisms of central–local relations. |
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