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?
November 2020

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, decisions were
made ad referendum (“for referral”), meaning that the
individual communities needed to approve them in turn
through collective deliberation.
In the 19th century referendums were also introduced in the
USA. However, it wasn’t until the 20th century – with universal
suffrage – that they were added to the Constitutions of 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 1851 when
after Luigi Napoleone Bonaparte’s coup d’etat a
plebiscite was 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 Napoleone III.
Howaretheydifferent
fromaPlebiscite?

6. abrogative or popular referendums
TYPEOFREFERENDUMS
In abrogative referendums, regulated by art. 75 of 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repealed.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 majority of eligible voters have to take part. The Law put to referendum
is only repealed if the majority of eligible voters casts a vote.

7. how they are requested,
The Central Referendum Office at the Court of Cassation
verifies the number and validity of 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 Law the
referendum seeks to repeal can be put to referendum and if
the question has 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 referendum date for a Sunday
between 15 April and 15 June.
Referendums can be requested by 500,000 electors or
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 signatures of 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 cannot be requested in the year prior to
the expiry of 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 repealed via abrogative
referendum:
• tax and budget laws;
• amnesties and pardons;
• authorising the 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);
• atypical or 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
uphold the 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 parties was 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
abortion was upheld with
a turnout of 79.4%.
1974 1981 1987 1993 2011

10. Constitutional referendums
TYPEOFREFERENDUMS
Constitutional referendums are regulated by art. 138 of the Constitution. Citizens are called to decide
whether or not to enact a law changing the Constitution that 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 be requested by 500,000 electors, five Regional
Councils or a fifth of 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 citizens who are eligible to 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 turnout was still very low at 34.1%.
The Renzi-Boschi reform getting rid
of perfect bicameralism, revising
Title V and 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. 123 of 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 merge two Regions or create a new Region, or even decide that their
Province or Municipality should become part of another Region.
Whether or not a quorum is 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.
TYPEOFREFERENDUMS

14. Adhoc referendums
Some referendums are considered ad hoc due to of the historic importance of the questions and
because they fall outside traditional regulatory limits.
TYPEOFREFERENDUMS

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 Italy to remain a Monarchy or
become a Republic.
On 2 June 1946 12 million men and, for the first time, about 13
million women cast their votes. Turnout was 89% 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 Parliament and a Constitution.
The referendum was not subject to a quorum nor was it binding,
but turnout 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 citizens are losing
interest in 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, 28 referendums have failed to reach the
required quorum. However, 25 of these fall between 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 trouble understanding the complex wording of the
questions;
• lawmakers are 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
remove the quorum in order to encourage even no-voters to 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, signatures are still being 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 matters that are excluded from 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
537 referendums 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 neverforget
Some referendums have left their mark on history.

22. 2018
IN EUROPE
UnitedKingdom
Citizens decided to stay in
the European Economic
Community.
FranCEANDHOLLAND
The referendums on ratifying
the European Constitution
failed, blocking the 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
SOVIETUNION
The March referendum on whether
or not to preserve the Soviet Union.
Although the YES vote won with
77.85%, this was not enough to halt
the dissolution of the USSR in
December of that same year.
CHILE
The referendum abolishing
the Constitution created
under the Pinochet
dictatorship.
1981
SouthAfrica
The referendum that led to
the abolition of apartheid.
1991 1992 2020

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