Dana Nelson describes this understanding of the presidency on page 177 of "Bad For Democracy", citing Barney Frank's use of the political science term plebiscitary democracy: a system "wherein a leader is elected but once elected has almost all of the power.". From Wordnik.com. [In Defense of the Electoral College] Reference
We have entered what is called a plebiscitary regime, one where the only elections that count are the one for the executive and any plebiscite that this one may wish to hold. From Wordnik.com. [07/03/2005 - 07/10/2005] Reference
Acton has changed Aquinas' mixed regime into a plebiscitary democracy. From Wordnik.com. [Was Aquinas a Whig?] Reference
Both solved political problems through plebiscitary votes, not well thoughts referendum. From Wordnik.com. [An historical precedent for chavismo?] Reference
Perots urge to give government a plebiscitary cast conflicts with the Founders 'aspirations. From Wordnik.com. [The Veep And The Blatherskite] Reference
The extreme case is a government that seeks mass plebiscitary approval of actions already taken. From Wordnik.com. [Rediscovering Institutions] Reference
More important than direct or plebiscitary democracy in choosing a president is the issue of federalism. From Wordnik.com. [William E. Jackson Jr.: Federalized Democracy: How We Elect the President -- and a Prediction] Reference
Now that the office has degenerated into a plebiscitary presidency, this sort of demagoguery is taken for granted. From Wordnik.com. [The Volokh Conspiracy » Chief Justice Roberts on Attending the SOTU] Reference
It might, in particular, strengthen the movement against the separation of powers and toward a plebiscitary presidency. From Wordnik.com. [The Runaway Presidency] Reference
If participation is below 40% Chavez will have to decide between democracy or a plebiscitary regime or an outright autocracy. From Wordnik.com. [11/27/2005 - 12/04/2005] Reference
Since then Venezuela has become a plebiscitary regime where a true majority rules undemocratically by increasingly refusing its basic rights to the minority. From Wordnik.com. [Venezuela News and Views has hit the 4 years mark] Reference
You would encourage a more plebiscitary, more direct democracy, but the people would be constantly feeling the pressures, constantly feeling people looking at me -- how do I behave?. From Wordnik.com. [Restoration: Congress, Term Limits and the Recovery of Deliberative Democracy] Reference
Now, instead of having a vote to evaluate the management of the elected public servant, it became a cryptic political election where there was only one candidate, a plebiscitary event. From Wordnik.com. [Gutting civil rights in Venezuela: the Recall Election example] Reference
Ervin and his colleagues are fighting to protect Congress from the plebiscitary presidency, not to frustrate the leadership of a President who recognizes his accountability to Congress and the Constitution. From Wordnik.com. [The Runaway Presidency] Reference
The notion that we have a plebiscitary democracy in this country would have astonished James Madison and the other Framers of the Constitution, who thought they were establishing a federal republic of limited powers. From Wordnik.com. [More Than Fit to Print] Reference
We must be clear on one thing, Venezuela has ceased to be a democratic country, it is now a plebiscitary regime, were on occasion people are asked to ratify the regime in a way that it is difficult for the regime to lose. From Wordnik.com. [12/03/2006 - 12/10/2006] Reference
By all accounts, his political activities bore little fruit, except his advocacy for a robust plebiscitary presidency in the Weimar Constitution, and his political influence was marginal at best despite the widespread respect he commanded from the general public. From Wordnik.com. [Asthmatic] Reference
It explains the similarities and differences between the practical authority of rulers (including democratic electors acting as selectors of representatives or as plebiscitary decision-makers) and the theoretical authority of experts and persons of sound judgment. From Wordnik.com. [Natural Law Theories] Reference
Burke gave us another set of ideas that seems to have fallen by the wayside in contemporary American politics, and in contemporary American conservatism: the value of prudence and judgment in public life, and along with those virtues, the merits of republicanism rather than plebiscitary democracy. From Wordnik.com. [“Fixing Milwaukee” (and America) – Governing note « PurpleSlog – Awesomeness & Modesty Meets Sexy] Reference
Fourth: The Founders designed a representative republic, not a plebiscitary democracy. From Wordnik.com. [The New Republic - All Feed] Reference
Youtube plans to eliminate the plebiscitary mechanisms which ensure a free and democratic society. From Wordnik.com. [Yahoo! Answers: Latest Questions] Reference
Roosevelt went even further, championing a plebiscitary democracy with fewer constitutional checks. From Wordnik.com. [Claremont.org] Reference
Was not this plebiscitary Caesarism established upon the same foundation as the republic of their dreams?. From Wordnik.com. [Political Parties; a Sociological Study of the Oligarchical Tendencies of Modern Democracy] Reference
The future dynamic appears to be one of the enthronement of a plebiscitary democracy without counterweights. From Wordnik.com. [Plan Colombia and Beyond] Reference
Switzerland's system of plebiscitary democracy compels single-issue referendums if petitions amass enough signatures. From Wordnik.com. [The Prague Post] Reference
True, the change was one of dynasty only, not of regime, albeit Louis-Philippe posed rather as a plebiscitary monarch. From Wordnik.com. [Balzac]
Those who love paradox may be inclined to regard this process as the first symptom marking the passage of democracy from a system of plebiscitary Bonapartism to one of hereditary monarchy. From Wordnik.com. [Political Parties; a Sociological Study of the Oligarchical Tendencies of Modern Democracy] Reference
Fears were repeatedly expressed that here could be the makings of an authoritarian system of rule distinct from, but genetically related to, the nation's previous experience of plebiscitary power. From Wordnik.com. [London Review of Books] Reference
We have seen that the replacement of the traditional legitimism of the powers-that-be by the brutal plebiscitary rule of Bonapartist parvenus does not furnish these tendencies with any moral or aesthetic superiority. From Wordnik.com. [Political Parties; a Sociological Study of the Oligarchical Tendencies of Modern Democracy] Reference
So I am not advocating a substitution of representative democracy with the plebiscitary variety or an attempt to redesign the federal government into an approximation of those state governments where a sequence of statewide referenda renders governance a virtual impossibility. From Wordnik.com. [The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com] Reference
Proudhon, who did not want, at any price, the plebiscitary system which he had good reason to regard as destructive of liberty, did not hesitate to point out, to those of his friends who expected every thing from direct legislation, one of the antinomies of universal suffrage. From Wordnik.com. [What is Property? An Inquiry into the Principle of Right and of Government.] Reference
A kind of plebiscitary Napoleonic system. From Wordnik.com. [The Globe and Mail - Home RSS feed] Reference
"illegally and immorally annexed" to the Republic without their plebiscitary consent. From Wordnik.com. [Wyzemoro Blogs] Reference
That is not democratic or plebiscitary. From Wordnik.com. [Fidel Castro's 8 Aug News Conference] Reference
(Some Putin-sympathetic bloggers out there have ventured forth the idea that Russia is a "plebiscitary regime," and I hope they elaborate on this notion, since I find it unconvincing so far. From Wordnik.com. [Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty] Reference
7,827,475 would have turned into a minority, can hardly be said to rest upon as firm a basis, for example, as that of the Third Empire, with its plebiscitary majority of seven millions in 1870 responding to its majority of seven millions in 1852?. From Wordnik.com. [France and the Republic A Record of Things Seen and Learned in the French Provinces During the 'Centennial' Year 1889] Reference
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