This handbook provides an empirically rich analysis of referendums in Europe from the end of the Second World War to the present. It addresses a range of perennial theoretical and legal questions that face policy-makers when they offer citizens the chance to take or influence decisions by referendum, not least whether to accept the ‘will of the people’. Taking a multi-disciplinary approach, drawing on historical, philosophical and political science perspectives, the book includes a contextual section on the history of referendums, the theoretical questions underpinning their use, and on constitutional and legal questions about the use of referendums. The empirical sections are divided into those referendums that focus on domestic issues, such as constitutional matters or questions of social policy, and those related to the European Union, including membership referendums and treaty ratification.
Tabella dei contenuti
1. Introduction.- 2. Referendums and Democratic Theory.- 3. History.- 4. The Rules of Referendums.- 5. Referendums and Parliaments.- 6. The Shifting Will of the People: The Case of EU Referendums.- 7. Two Hundred Years of Direct Democracy: The Referendum in Europe 1793-2018.- 8. The King versus the People: Lessons from a Belgian Referendum.- 9. The Referendum Experience in France.- 10. The Referendum Experience in Switzerland.- 11. The Scottish and Welsh Devolution Referendums of 1979 and 1997.- 12. The 1998 Good Friday (Belfast) Agreement referendums in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.- 13. The United Kingdom parliamentary voting system referendum of 2011.- 14. The Scottish Independence Referendum of 2014.- 15. The 2017 Catalan Referendum in Comparative Perspective.- 16. The Irish Referendums on Marriage Equality and Abortion.- 17. Referendums, Institutional and Constitutional Change in Italy: The Very ‘Crooked Timber’ of the Italian Experience.- 18. Luxembourg: The 2015 Referendum on Voting Rights for Foreign Residents.- 19. Turkey’s Constitutional Referendum: The 16 April 2017 Referendum in Historical Perspective.- 20. The Irish and Danish 1972 referendums on EC Accession.- 21. Referendums: Norway 1972 & 1994.- 22. In or Out of ‘Europe’? The 1975 and 2016 UK Referendums on Membership.- 23. The EFTA Enlargement.- 24. EU Accession Referendums.- 25. ‘If You Can’t Join Them…’ – Explaining No Votes in Danish EU Referendums.- 26. The 2003 Swedish Euro Referendum.- 27. Referendums on EU Treaty Reform: Revisiting the Result in Second Referendums.- 28. The French and Dutch Block the Constitutional Treaty.- 29. Swiss Votes on Europe.- 30. The Greek Referendum on Bailouts 2015.- 31. Hungary’s EU Refugee Relocation Quota Referendum: ‘Let’s Send a Message to Brussels’.- 32. The Dutch Referendum on the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement.- 33. Issue Voting in Danish EU Referendums.
Circa l’autore
Julie Smith is Reader in European Politics in the Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Cambridge, UK, and a Fellow in Politics at Robinson College. As Baroness Smith of Newnham, she sits on the Liberal Democrat benches in the House of Lords, where she led for the Liberal Democrats on the European Referendum Bill in 2015 and has served on the International Relations and Defence Committee since 2016. She was Head of the European Programme at Chatham House from 1999 to 2003.
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