Why risk a referendum? Reassessing the politics of the referendum in the UK.

在2016年脱欧公投之前的几年里，评论人士一直在哀叹英国的民主状况。选民经常被描述为心怀不满、幻想破灭和与政治制度脱节(Hay 2007)。尽管公投活动和公投的后果都极具争议性，但一些人表示，公投推动的参与度为这种萎靡不振提供了一剂解药。高登记率和高投票率(72%)促使英国政府指出：“脱欧公投表明，英国公众仍然相信他们的投票是有价值的，我们的民主仍然可以改变我们周围的世界”(HMG 2017：31)。然而，2016-19年以议会僵局为特征的民主不满迅速卷土重来，一系列宪法问题浮出水面。在这样的背景下，我的博士论文首次系统地解释了为什么公投最初成为英国的一种政治工具。基于对20世纪70年代实施公投的前四个案例(北爱尔兰边境投票、欧洲共同体公投以及向苏格兰和威尔士移交权力的全民公投)的原始、深入的分析，报告认为，尽管历届政府都有动机将公投作为化解棘手的治理问题的手段，但这样做加剧了他们周围的政治压力。通过持续分析这一工具是如何在过去十年里出现的，这篇论文超越了对英国直接民主的描述，这些描述侧重于政党政治和宪政历史，并强调了宪法如何能够、而且经常是冲突和政治操纵的场所。虽然我已经发表了几篇关于2016年后困扰英国政坛的宪法冲突的文章，但我还没有发表任何关于博士项目本身的发现。因此，该奖学金的主要目标是完成并提交一份以论文为基础并使文本适合更广泛读者的书稿。我已经与OUP讨论了这个项目，我打算在开始奖学金之前向他们提交建议。在调整和更新文本时，研究还将建立在考官反馈的基础上，以促进两个方向的分析。首先，这本书将突出北爱尔兰(NI)对英国宪法演变的独特变革作用，借鉴了第一次英国公投-1973年北爱尔兰边界民调-的证据。其次，它将重新探讨议会主权和人民主权在英国体制内的兼容性问题，指出围绕公投出现的政治压力是如何根植于这种紧张关系的。还将提交另外两篇利用为论文收集的数据撰写的期刊论文，并在国际会议上发表。该奖学金还包括两个工作流程，旨在利用传播机会、政策影响和扩大我在学术界内外的关系网。在承担两个最低职位--一个在贝内特研究所(剑桥)，另一个在上议院--在这一年里，我将接触到一系列研究和研究--与研究相邻的背景，在研究-政策界面上发展技能和联系。通过协调关于英国公投政治的研讨会，该研究金将把该领域的杰出学者和主要政策实践者聚集在一起，讨论概念性和实践性的决策问题，特别是侧重于直接民主在地方政府中的作用。这份多样化的工作计划是为了确保我最大限度地利用奖学金提供的机会，不仅致力于研究和写作，而且还致力于培养一套技能，为我未来的学术生涯做好充分准备。

In the years prior to the 2016 EU referendum, commentators consistently lamented the state of UK democracy. The electorate were routinely described as disaffected, disillusioned and detached from the political system (Hay 2007). Though both the campaign and the consequences of the referendum were highly contentious, some suggested the boost to engagement it inspired provided an antidote to this malaise. The high levels of registration and turnout (72%) led the UK government to note that 'the EU Referendum demonstrated that the British public retain faith that their vote does count and that our democracy can still change the world around us' (HMG 2017: 31). However, the parliamentary deadlock which characterized 2016-19 saw the rapid re-emergence of democratic dissatisfaction, with a raft of constitutional questions coming to the fore. Framed within this context, my PhD thesis provided the first systematic empirical account of why the referendum first emerged as a political tool in the UK. Based on original, in-depth, analysis of the first four cases of referendum implementation in the 1970s (Northern Ireland border poll, European Communities referendum, and referendums on devolution to Scotland and Wales), it argued that despite the motivations of successive governments to introduce the device as a means of defusing intractable governing problems, in so doing they intensified political pressures around them. Through sustained analysis of how the device emerged across the course of a decade, the thesis moved beyond accounts of direct democracy in the UK which have focused on party-politics and constitutional history, and highlighted how the constitution can, and has often been, a site of conflict and political manoeuvring. Whilst I have published several articles on the constitutional conflicts which plagued UK politics in the post-2016 period, I am yet to publish any findings from the PhD project itself. The principal objective of this fellowship, therefore, is to complete and submit a book manuscript which builds on the thesis and adapts the text for a wider readership. I have already discussed the project with OUP, to whom I intend to submit the proposal prior to commencing the fellowship. In adapting and updating the text, the research will also build on examiner feedback to advance the analysis in two directions. Firstly, the book will highlight the uniquely transformative effect of Northern Ireland (NI) upon the evolution of the UK constitution, drawing on evidence from the first UK referendum - the 1973 NI border poll. Secondly, it will revisit questions regarding the compatibility of parliamentary and popular sovereignty within the UK system, noting how the political pressures surrounding the emergence of the referendum were rooted in this tension. Two additional journal articles drawing on data collected for the thesis will also be submitted and presented at international conferences. The fellowship also incorporates two workstreams which seek to capitalise on opportunities for dissemination, policy impact and to increase my networks both within and beyond academia. In undertaking two min-ifellowships - one at the Bennett Institute (Cambridge) and one at the House of Lords - over the course of the year I will be exposed to a range of research and research-adjacent contexts, developing skills and contacts across the research-policy interface. Through the coordination of the workshop on the politics of the referendum in the UK, the fellowship will bring together pre-eminent academics in the field and key policy practitioners to discuss conceptual and practical policy-making questions, focusing in particular on the role of direct democracy within local government. This diverse workplan has been crafted to ensure I maximise the opportunities afforded by the fellowship, not merely devoting it to research and writing, but to the cultivation of a skillset which fully equips me for a future academic career.