The Impact of Direct Democracy on Society - Universität St.Gallen

– 46 –Solothurn and Basel-Land, the revisions in the cantonal constitutions in 1998 lead to a declinein the subindex value <strong>of</strong> the statutory referendum for both cantons (from 6 to 5.33 and from 6to 5.17, respectively).On the 1st <strong>of</strong> January, 2003, the new constitution <strong>of</strong> the canton Schaffhausen came into force,which imposes fewer restrictions on the mandatory statutory referendum than the oldconstitution. As with the old constitution, all laws not subject to an optional referendum (art.32 lit. c CC) must be passed by the cantonal electorate. <strong>The</strong>se include those laws not passedby more than four-fifths <strong>of</strong> the present members <strong>of</strong> the cantonal parliament (old constitution:‘Grosser Rat‘; new constitution: ‘Kantonsrat’). In contrast to the new constitution, however,the old regulations also exempted laws referring to cantonal administration and execution <strong>of</strong>federal laws from the mandatory referendum, as those laws did not bring about new expensesor new taxes (art. 42 old CC, T/S 1999, p. 283). Moreover, in the new constitution, bothextraordinary mandatory and statutory referenda are applicable (art 32, 1 lit. h CC; art 33, 1lit. f CC). This widening <strong>of</strong> the scope <strong>of</strong> the mandatory statutory referendum in the newconstitution, however, does not affect its valuation on the index.Decisive changes can also be observed after 1997 in the case <strong>of</strong> Appenzell Ausserrhoden. Onthe 28th <strong>of</strong> September, 1997 (effective as <strong>of</strong> the same date), the annual open Landsgemeindemeeting was replaced by secret voting at the ballot box. At that time, however, the principlecharacter <strong>of</strong> the direct democratic institution remained unchanged (and thus did not affect thevalue <strong>of</strong> the index <strong>of</strong> direct democracy) 60 . On the 21st <strong>of</strong> May, 2000, however, a distinctionbetween the optional and the mandatory referendum was introduced that includes theabolishment <strong>of</strong> the statutory mandatory referendum for both laws and international treatiesand its replacement by an optional statutory referendum (art. 60 lit. b, c old CC, art. 60 bisCC, see also table 5, effective: 1st <strong>of</strong> June, 2000). Only fundamental decrees remained subjectto a mandatory statutory referendum (art. 60, 1 lit. d CC). According to Mr. SIGRIST 61 , thisnew mandatory referendum on fundamental decrees has been applicable only once since itsintroduction in June 2000 and plays a negligible role. He further stated that the laws referringto the execution <strong>of</strong> such a fundamental decree would again be subject to the optional statutoryreferendum. Through the same constitutional revision, an extraordinary mandatoryreferendum was introduced that can be applied to decrees <strong>of</strong> the Kantonsrat if a third <strong>of</strong> its60 <strong>The</strong> index <strong>of</strong> direct democracy does not take into account the type <strong>of</strong> voting (e.g. at the ballot box vs. by openballot).61 Chief <strong>of</strong> Rechtsdienst Appenzell Ausserrhoden, personal communication (15/10/2004).