The Impact of Direct Democracy on Society - Universität St.Gallen

– 48 –also introduced in the case that a quarter <strong>of</strong> all members <strong>of</strong> the cantonal parliament demandedit (art. 62, 1 lit. b CC). In the course <strong>of</strong> this revision, article 62 was appended a letter ‘e’ (art.62, 1 e CC), which extends the mandatory statutory referendum to decrees <strong>of</strong> the Grosser Rat(according to art. 63, 1 lit. b - d and f CC). This extension means that this referendum is nowapplicable to decrees to which, prior to its revision, only the optional referendum applied. Itsconstitutional requirement is, again, that decrees have been passed with a majority below theabsolute majority <strong>of</strong> the Grosser Rat. Analogously to art. 62, 1 lit. b CC, the extraordinarymandatory referendum was also applicable to such decrees. Given that the index <strong>of</strong> directdemocracy assigns a higher value to a mandatory statutory referendum than to an optionalstatutory referendum, a decline in the index will be induced by the new majority requirement.Among the remaining cantons, Tessin, Waadt and Neuenburg adopted new constitutions in1998, 2003, and 2002, respectively. <strong>The</strong>se, however, did not bring about any changes withrespect to the nonexistence <strong>of</strong> the mandatory statutory referendum for cantonal laws. Hence,the degree <strong>of</strong> direct democracy as measured by the index was not affected.4.3 Optional Statutory ReferendumCantonZürich(30 Mar 2004)Table 5: Optional Statutory Referendum Between 1997 and 2003Signature Time-limit for Articles in cant.requirement collection const.Effective since5,000 60 days art. 30 bis, 1 1 Jan 1999(27 Sept 1998)Zürich(old)Bern(21 Oct 2003)Luzern(21 Oct 2003)Uri(1 Apr 2003)Uri(old)Mandatory statutoryreferendumSee table 410,000 3 months art. 62, 2 1 Jan 1995(6 June 1993)3,000 60 days art. 39, 1 1 Nov 1969 (art. 40, 1)art. 40, 1450 90 days art. 25, 1art. 25, 2 lit. b1 Jan 1977 (art. 39, 1)1 Oct 1997(8 Jun 1997)For by-laws;mandatory stat. ref. forlaws see table 4300 90 days art. 25, 1 Only for by-laws(see T/S 1999, p. 359)(1985)mandatory stat. ref. forlaws see table 4