Referendums Around the World

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xviii

   PDF

2. Introduction: Theory, Practice and History

   • Matt Qvortrup

   Pages 1-18

3. Western Europe

   • Matt Qvortrup

   Pages 19-45

4. Switzerland

   • Uwe Serdült

   Pages 47-112

5. Russia, the Former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe

   • Ronald J. Hill, Stephen White

   Pages 113-145

6. North America and the Caribbean

   • Todd Donovan

   Pages 147-183

7. Latin America

   • David Altman

   Pages 185-211

8. Africa

   • Norbert Kersting

   Pages 213-235

9. Australasia

   • Matt Qvortrup, Caroline Morris, Masahiro Kobori

   Pages 237-262

10. Two Hundred Years of Referendums

    • Matt Qvortrup

    Pages 263-272

11. Back Matter

    Pages 273-307

    PDF

This book provides a comprehensive summary and analysis of all the nationwide referendums since 1793. Referendums are ubiquitous and they are increasingly becoming vehicles for political change – or sometimes vehicles of conservatism. In 2016, for example, the voters in the United Kingdom caused a major upheaval when they voted for leaving the European Union. Later in the same year, a majority of the voters in Colombia rejected a peace plan carefully negotiated by the political elites to end decades of civil war. Were these decisions prudent?  Why were these issues submitted to referendums? Why did the majority of voters vote against the governments’ recommendations? Have ‘the people’ had grown tired of the old political class? Was this a new tendency? These are some of the questions addressed in this new edition, which will be compulsory reading for anyone interested in or concerned about populism and democracy.

• history of referendums around the world
• Brexit referendum
• Indyref
• Scottish independence referendum
• Colombian peace plan referendum
• populism and democracy
• populism and referendums
• history of direct democracy
• referendums in Africa
• referendums in North America
• referendums in Latin America
• referendums in Europe
• referendums in Australasia
• debates surrounding referendums
• theory and practice of referendums
• Hungarian refugee referendum
• Croatian gay marriage referendum
• Irish gay marriage referendum
• US gun control referendums
• Italian constitutional referendum
• democracy

“This delightful volume reviews the history of referendums around the world dating back to the French Revolution, focusing on one continent per chapter (plus one for Switzerland, which has held ‘roughly half of all nationwide referendums in history’); it presents many rich tables of data that detail the outcome of thousands of popular votes. … Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.” (M. R. Michelson, Choice, Vol. 55 (9), May, 2018) “For better or for worse, referendums are increasingly challenging representative democracy as a driving force in political life. We need to understand them better – and in this essential volume, Matt Qvortrup and his distinguished colleagues present a gripping historical overview of this form of  populism  from the French revolution to Brexit.” (Lord Lipsey, Labour Peer and Former Adviser to Anthony Crosland and James Callaghan, UK)

• Coventry University, Coventry, UK

  Matt Qvortrup

Matt Qvortrup is Professor of Political Science at Coventry University, UK and Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts. His other books include Referendums and Ethnic Conflict (2014) and Angela Merkel: Europe’s Most Influential Leader (2016).

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