ABSTRACT
In this chapter the history of the referendum is charged. After a tour d’horizon of the earlier use of the direct democracy, this chapter presents a historical overview of the use of referendums from the Renaissance through to the First World War. It is pointed out that the referendum – contrary to assertions by Tuck (2016) – can be traced back to the fifteenth century. Despite its earlier use, referendums only began to be used in earnest in the nineteenth century where the Italian Risorgimento and the early years of the Swiss Federation (after 1848) essentially owed their existence to the use of referendums. Having analysed these cases we take a closer look at the discussion about the referendum in the United Kingdom and on the European continent. Drawing on a functionalist inspired model, the chapter ends with reflections and research on why there has been an apparent increase in the use of referendums since the 1980s (see Figure 1.1).
