Referendum: Partial / total repeal of Law 16211 of Public Companies (Privatization)
The Referendum in Uruguay gives the right to the Uruguayan people to repeal certain laws issued by the parliament, partially or totally. For this purpose, 25% of the total number of registered voters are required within one year of the promulgation of the law, in order to reach a referendum. This was put into practice with Law 16211 of 1991 which was the attempt to direct the privatization of public enterprises by the National Party. It was not a complete privatization but one authorized to grant concessions of public services, this way the company was kept public, but its control passed to the investor group. The main companies included in the reform were the National Telecommunications Administration (ANTEL) and the First Uruguayan Air Navigation Lines (PLUNA). The respective unions were the main promoters of the Referendum, also supported by the Frente Amplio. Two acts of adhesion were necessary to arrive at the referendum and on both occasions the voters had the possibility to choose between overturning the law partially or totally. Thus, in the second attempt enough votes were gathered in favor of a referendum to remove the law partially, referring mainly to public telephony. In the Referendum held in December 1992 parts of Law 16211 were overturned by 66% of citizens.
Institutional design
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
- no
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Ends
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