Let’s Discuss the Referendum Calmly

Referendum is a critical tool that citizens may use to express their own opinion and to shape the trajectory of government decisions. For instance, in 2016, the United Kingdom European Union membership referendum (aka. The Brexit referendum) leads to the British government’s decision of withdrawing its membership from EU. In the 2018 Taiwanese referendum, citizens can vote on ten questions across several issues. At the same time, since the referendum was held alongside local elections, it raised serious concerns about the legitimacy of the results of both the referendum and local elections. For this reason, we invite Professor I-Chou Liu (Political Science, NCCU) to give us a talk on the meaning of the referendum and potential implications of it.