Uruguay

Plebiscite / Popular Initiative of the Retired

The plebiscite of 1994 was the result of a popular initiative in order to implement a constitutional rule in the matter of pensions. This mechanism sought to prevent the Executive Branch from introducing changes to pensions and the pension system through Accountability. The plebiscite was carried out by a movement of pensioners, including a strong union participation and counted on the support of several political parties. The voting was carried out in parallel with the general elections and was approved by a very high percentage of 72.3%. That is to say that the popular initiative in Uruguay is one of the mechanisms of direct democracy. In this case, the procedure was entitled to promote the reform of the Constitution by the "initiative of ten percent of the citizens registered in the National Civic Register, submitting a structured project," provided for in Article 331(a) of the Constitution. The legislative power has the option to propose an alternative project, but the decision lies in the vote of the electorate.

Institutional design

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Formalization: is the innovation embedded in the constitution or legislation, in an administrative act, or not formalized at all?

Frequency: how often does the innovation take place: only once, sporadically, or is it permanent or regular?

Mode of Selection of Participants: is the innovation open to all participants, access is restricted to some kind of condition, or both methods apply?

Type of participants: those who participate are individual citizens, civil society organizations, private stakeholders or a combination of those?

Decisiveness: does the innovation takes binding, non-binding or no decision at all?

Co-governance: is there involvement of the government in the process or not?

Formalization
embedded in the constitution/legislation 
Frequency
single
Mode of selection of participants
open 
Type of participants
citizens  
Decisiveness
democratic innovation yields a binding decision  
Co-Governance
yes 

Means


  • Deliberation
  • Direct Voting
  • E-Participation
  • Citizen Representation

Ends


  • Accountability
  • Responsiveness
  • Rule of Law
  • Political Inclusion
  • Social Equality

Policy cycle

Agenda setting
Formulation and decision-making
Implementation
Policy Evaluation

How to quote

Do you want to use the data from this website? Here’s how to cite:

Pogrebinschi, Thamy. (2017). LATINNO Dataset. Berlin: WZB.

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