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256 การประชุมวิชาการ
สถาบันพระปกเกล้า ครั้งที่ 16

Referendum as the conflict resolution

in the parliament

Abstract

This article focuses on the process of the referendum initiated by the minority of
the representatives (or of the senates). According to Thai Constitutions promulgated
in 1997 and 2007, the referendum can be called only by the government (who

generally, in the parliamentary system, comes from the majority of the House of
Representatives); in other word, if the minority of the House think that the draft bill

passed by the majority may be against the will of the people, they cannot call for the
referendum to make people decide. Therefore, in November 2013, when the amnesty
bill, with which lots of people disagreed, was passed by the majority of the House,

the opposition party could do nothing because there was no resolution written in the
constitution to be applied in this case. The public demonstration against the amnesty

bill eventually occurred instead. This article investigates the process of the referendum
initiated by the majority of the members of the parliament provided in the
Constitutions of some States – Denmark, Albania, Italy, Spain, Austria and France. The

study shows that most of the States where the minority of the parliament initiated
referendum is applied are unicameralism while bicameral States apply this process with

many restrictions. This article concludes that if this process is written in the new
Constitution in the case of the draft bill or the constitutional amendment, the
restrictions must be clear and will depend on legislative and constitutional amendment

process.

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