Financial referendum

The financial referendum (also known as a budget referendum) is a form of the referendum and an instrument of direct democracy. It always relates to parts of the public budget of a government and allows citizens to vote directly on individual budget items.

Certain initial conditions are usually defined as a prerequisite for holding a financial referendum. In most cases, only budget items that exceed a certain absolute amount or a certain proportion of the total budget or investments that will burden the budget for a number of years can be subjected to a financial referendum.

The financial referendum may be either optional or mandatory. In its optional form a specified number of signatures from voters must be collected within a certain time period to trigger a vote on a budget item. A mandatory financial referendum automatically leads to a vote as soon as the conditions regarding the amount and duration of a budget item are met.^[1] Budget items that do not meet the specified conditions or that the local authority is legally obliged to do cannot be subject to a financial referendum.

^ "Supplemental Information 3: An excerpt from Data Downloads page, where users can download original datasets". doi:10.7717/peerj.9467/supp-3. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)

[:0-1] "Supplemental Information 3: An excerpt from Data Downloads page, where users can download original datasets". doi:10.7717/peerj.9467/supp-3. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)

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