People Are Threatened With Loss Of Referendum Voice

Last week, fresh off of his victories of the ballot questions, Gov. Martin O’Malley has been quoted as saying: “I think we have been best served in our state in the over 200 years or more of our history, by a representative democracy rather than plebiscites.”

As a student of politics, and a frequent visitor to the Naval Academy in Annapolis, I have an understanding of the root word of plebe but hearing in this context made me curious so I looked up the word in Webster’s Dictionary. Plebiscite means “a vote by which the people of an entire country or district express an opinion for or against a proposal especially on a choice of government or ruler.”

In simple English, plebiscite means that the people have the ability to voice their opinion on a choice made on their behalf by the government.

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