Ngaire WOODS Founding dean of the Blavatnik School of Government and professor of Global Economic Governance at the University of Oxford On 23 January 2013 British Prime Minister David Cameron announced an “in/out referendum” on the European Union. »It is time for the British people to have their say. It is time for us to settle this question about Britain and Europe » he declared. On both points, he signaled a failure of democratic practice. When an elected politician holds a referendum to find out what the people are saying, one can surely only assume that he is not listening. In Britain, as in many democracies, people “have their say” in many ways. They form associations, they lobby, they write to newspapers, they take part in television discussions, they write to the Prime Minister, they vote in local, regional, and national elections. They badger their local member of Parliament, church or school.
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