Referendumo teisė ir jos reglamentavimas Lietuvoje ir užsienyje ; The Right of Referendum and its Regulation in Lithuania and Foreign Countries
In recent years the growth of direct democratic procedures in the world has become far more noticeable. Never before such a large number of people could vote for the actual issues since over the past decade. More frequently applied initiative law, general voting with a view to resolving essential problems and using mechanism of cancelation of the elected officials has fundamentally changed the political dynamics. Around the world representative democracy is being transformed and modernized. Thus the topic of the Master's thesis was chosen not randomly but to the more extensive context of the analysis of the referendum institute and aims to approach the experience of the referenda and assessing their prospects in Lithuania, Switzerland and California. The objective has been achieved by analyzing legal doctrine and legislation in terms of Lithuania and the experience of the selected states (Switzerland and California) organizing the referendums as well as their effects on representative democracy. The first part disputes the referendum in detail referring to it as the institute of direct democracy, concept and classification since the researchers' opinion concerning the terminology is different. The second part deals with the practice of referendum law in Lithuania and its assessment is presented. The third part analyzes the institutions of direct democracy in Switzerland and their assessment. The direct democracy in California is assessed in the fourth part while and arguments disapproving sceptics' opinion are presented in the fifth part.