WHAT IS A REFERENDUM

In modern legal systems, referendums allow citizens to participate directly in democracy.
one of the first theorists and supporters of the referendum was Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who considered direct democracy the only way to ensure the formation of the general will.

1. WHAT IS A REFERENDUM?
November2020

2. DEFINItION
“Referendum” comes from the gerundive form of the Latin verb “refero” which means to bring back or
refer, and from the expression “ad referendum”, called for referral.
In modern legal systems, referendums allow citizens to participate directly in democracy.

3. ITS ORIGINS
Although it is often said to have come from Ancient Greece or
Republican Rome, actually, one of the first theorists and
supporters of the referendum was Jean-Jacques Rousseau,
who considered direct democracy the only way to ensure the
formation of the general will:
“
The sovereignty of the State belongs only to
the people and is inalienable and indivisible.

4. … and development
The first referendum took place in Switzerland on 23 May
1875, where mountain communities self-governed through
assemblies that all the members of the community took part in.
When canton assemblies were held, communities sent their
delegates. However, during these assemblies, decisionswere
made ad referendum (“for referral”), meaning that the
individual communities needed to approve them in turn
through collective deliberation.
In the 19
th
century referendums were also introducedin the
USA. However, it wasn’t until the 20
th
century –with universal
suffrage –that they were added to the Constitutionsof the
democratic States.

5. Plebiscites are a part of modern law and are when the
people directly manifest their will regarding State
organisation, territorial sovereignty and the creation
of a legal system.
The first plebiscite took place in France in 1851when
after Luigi Napoleone Bonaparte’s coup d’etata
plebiscitewas held that extended the presidential
mandate to ten years and brought an end to the
Republic by declaring Bonaparte the French emperor
with the name NapoleoneIII.
How are they different
from a Plebiscite?

6. abrogative or popular referendums
TYPE OF REFERENDUM S
In abrogative referendums, regulated by art. 75of the Constitution, citizens can ask for a Law or an
act having the force of Law (Decree-Laws and Legislative Decrees) to be either totally or partially
repealed.
Any citizen eligible to elect the Chamber of Deputies can vote in these referendums and they are
subject to a quorum, i.e. the majorityof eligible voters have to take part. The Lawput to referendum
is only repealed if the majorityof eligible voters casts a vote .

7. how they are requested,
The Central Referendum Office at the Court of Cassation
verifies the number and validityof the signatures. If all
checks out, it sends everything over to the Constitutional
Court, which has to decide whether or not the question is
admissible. In particular, it checks to make sure the Lawthe
referendum seeks to repeal can be put to referendumand if
the questionhas been clearly formulated.
If everything checks out at the Constitutional Court, the
referendum request gets sent to the President of the
Republic, who sets the referendumdate for a Sunday
between 15 April and 15 June.
Referendums can be requestedby 500,000electorsor
by five Regional Councils, between January and
September.
In the first case, at least ten citizens come together to
form a promoting Committee, submit a question to the
Constitutional Court and, within three months, collect
the signaturesof 500,000 electors.
In the second case, the question put to referendum
must be deliberated and obtain an absolute majority in
each Regional Council.
verified and convened

8. restrictions
Abrogative referendums cannotbe requested in the year prior to
the expiryof the term of the Houses of Parliament, nor in the six
months following the date the political campaign to elect one of
the Houses has started.
The following Laws cannot be repealedvia abrogative
referendum:
•tax and budget laws;
•amnestiesand pardons;
•authorisingthe ratification of international treaties.
The Constitutional Court has also excluded these Laws:
•those with constitutionally bound content (i.e. that affect
constitutional principles);
•those that are constitutionally mandatory (i.e. that guarantee the
functioning of democracy) or necessary (e.g. electoral laws);
•atypicalor reinforced laws (i.e. that cannot be repealed by later
ordinary laws).

9. 2018
Abrogative referendums that have made history
Abrogative referendums had to wait until 1970 to be implemented through Law n. 352.
From then on, many abrogative referendums have made history:
The people decided to
upholdthe law on divorce
with a turnout of 87.7%.
Just over a year after the
Chernobyl disaster, Italy
decided to stop producing
nuclear energy.
Turnout: 65.1%.
The law on the public funding
of political partieswas repealed
and the single-member majoritarian
system was adopted to elect the
Senate. Turnout: 77%.
The people decided to
continue with the public
management of water
services and again said NO
to producing nuclear energy.
Turnout: 54.7%.
The right to voluntary
abortionwas upheldwith
a turnout of 79.4%.
1974 1981 1987 1993 2011

10. Constitutional referendums
TYPE OF REFERENDUMS
Constitutional referendums are regulated by art. 138of the Constitution. Citizens are called to decide
whether or not to enact a law changing the Constitutionthat has already been approved by Parliament.
These referendums follow the “aggravated” procedure for Laws revising the Constitution wherein both
Houses must approve the draft bill through two voting rounds made within at least three months of each
other. The second voting round must have at least an absolute majority.
If the second voting round gets a two-thirds majority in both Houses, the referendum cannot be held.

11. THE PROCESS
It can berequested by 500,000 electors, fiveRegional
Councils or a fifthof the members of one of the Houses of
Parliament no later than three months after the Law has been
published in the Official Journal.
The President of the Republic issues a Decree setting the
referendum for sometime in the following 50-70 days.
All citizenswho are eligibleto elect the Chamber of Deputies
may take part.
There is no quorum and all matters are admissible.

12. 2018
Constitutional referendums that have made history
Four constitutional referendums have been held in the history of the Republic of Italy:
64.2% of citizens vote YES to amend
Title V redefining the matters falling under
the exclusive and concurrent legislative
authority of the State and the Regions,
but turnoutwas still very low at 34.1%.
The Renzi-Boschireform getting rid
of perfect bicameralism, revising
Title Vand abolishing the CNEL
(National Council on Economics and
Labour) gets rejected. Turnout is
65.4%and NO wins with 59.1%.
The people vote to cut the
number of MPs with a turnout
of 51.1%and a YES vote of
69.9%. Telos A&S looks
behind- the-scenes to cover
the process and results here.
61.2% of citizens vote NO to the
constitutional law amending Title II,
with a turnout of 52.4%. If they had
voted YES, one of the things it would
have done was boost the powers of
the Prime Minister.
2001 2006 2016 2020

13. regional and territorial referendums
According to art. 123of the Constitution, in referendums to confirm regional statutes, the citizens of a
region are called to uphold the enactment of a new regional statute. No quorum is required.
According to art.132,paragraph 1 and 2 of the Constitution, in advisory referendums the citizens of one
or more regions can agree to mergetwo Regions or create a new Region, or even decidethat their
Province or Municipality should become part of another Region.
Whether or not a quorumis required is still being debated.
Local advisory referendums are regulated by Regional Statutes and are often used to find out what
people think about a particular issue . They are not binding and there is no quorum.
TYPE OF REFERENDUM S

14. Ad hoc referendums
Some referendums are considered ad hoc due to of the historic importance of the questions and
because they fall outside traditional regulatory limits.
TYPE OF REFERENDUM S

15. The “institutional” referendum (1946)
The “institutional” referendum approved the creation of the Italian
Republic.
After World War II, this referendum was called so that people could
choose whether they wanted Italyto remain a Monarchy or
become a Republic .
On 2 June 1946 12 million men and, for the first time, about 13
million womencast their votes. Turnoutwas89% and the
Republic won with 54%of the votes.

16. confirming/advisory referendum
(1989)
An confirming/advisory referendum on whether or not to approve
a constitutional mandate for the European Parliament was held
in 1989. Citizens were asked whether they thought it was right
to transform the European Community into the European
Union and provide it with a Government accountable to
the Parliamentand a Constitution.
The referendum was not subject to a quorumnor was it binding,
butturnout was high(80%) and people clearly voted YES (89%).

17. The practice of holding referendums is experiencing a deep crisis, also because more and more citizensare losing
interestin politics more in general and are little inclined to go to the polls.
Of the 67 abrogative referendums in the history of the Italian Republic, 28referendums have failedto reach the
required quorum. However, 25 of these fallbetween 1997 and today.
Referendum crisis

18. The reasons
There are many reasons why people feel this sense of
disenchantment:
•the Constitutional Court has begun to filter out which questions
are admissible, reducing the number of issues that can be put to
referendum;
•citizens have troubleunderstanding the complex wording of the
questions;
•lawmakersare indifferent towards the binding outcome of some
referendums, such as the one on the public funding of political
parties or privatising the Italian public broadcaster RAI;
•a lack of information that keeps citizens from being able to
understand the actual effects of their vote.
The two most commonly proposed solutions to the problem are: to
removethe quorumin order to encourage even no- votersto go to
the polls or to eliminate referendums from the system altogether.

19. In Italy only one referendum is still evolving: the draft bill by popular initiative advanced by MP Vittorio Sgarbi on
Italexit, or Italy’s withdrawal from the European Union. At the moment, signaturesare stillbeing collected.
Another referendum could come from the Senate: on 20 October 2020 Senator Nencini(Italian Socialist Party–
Parliamentary Group Italia Viva) submitted the constitutional draft bill “Provisions to call for a referendum on access
to the European Stability Mechanism (ESM)” (AS 1984). The draft bill has been sent to Commission I (Constitutional
Affairs) for preliminary discussion and examination.
Current referendums

20. Different legal systems have different ways of regulating referendums:
Croatia: the President of the Republic can call for a referendum on mattersthat are excludedfrom the Italian
system, e.g. the existence of the Republic.
Switzerland: any draft bill can be put to referendum and they are frequently held. Indeed, since 1857 as many as
537referendums have been held.
San Marino: referendums by popular initiative allows the citizens to propose criteria or executive guidelines for the
drafting of laws.
Referendums throughout the world

21. Referendums we will never forget
Some referendums have left their mark on history.

22. 2018
IN EUROPE
UnitedKingdom
Citizens decided to stay in
the European Economic
Community.
FranCEAND HOLLAND
The referendums on ratifying
the European Constitution
failed, blockingthe European
Constitution and paving the way
for the 2009 Lisbon Treaty.
UnitedKingdom
The Brexit referendum, mirror-
like to the one in 1975, led to
the UK leaving the European
Union, the first nation to leave
the EU in history.
1981
DENMARK
Danish citizens said yes to
the Maastricht Treaty, giving
new impetus to the European
integration process.
1975 1993 2005 2016

23. 2018
In the World
SOVIET UNION
The March referendum on whether
or not to preserve the Soviet Union.
Although the YESvote won with
77.85%, this was not enough to halt
the dissolutionof the USSR in
December of that same year.
CHILE
The referendum abolishing
the Constitutioncreated
under the Pinochet
dictatorship.
1981
South Africa
The referendum that led to
the abolitionof apartheid.
1991 1992 2020

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