ABSTRACT
Only 16 out of 62 referendums that were held between 1972 and 2016 on European Union (EU) matters ended with a defeat of the government. 1 Two heads of government, prime ministers Trygve Bratteli (Norway 1972) and David Cameron (United Kingdom 2016), resigned as a direct consequence of the setback at the ballot box. Three negative decisions were used as a tool to obtain concessions from the EU so that the voters decided positively in the aftermath. In the other cases, the governments survived these negative outcomes despite the wounds the electoral defeat had inflicted on them.
