ABSTRACT
From the origins of the European Union (EU), referendums emerged as a key strategy for securing popular endorsement for developments in European integration. Part Gaullist legacy, suspicious of party politics, and part federalist desire to appeal directly to the ‘European people’ over (or under) member state governments, referendums were, however, fraught with difficulty especially after Maastricht. In the United Kingdom (UK) referendums have become an increasingly significant tool on the part of governing elites for securing legitimacy, especially in the face of declining support for mainstream parties, despite being alien to the British Political Tradition. The 2016 referendum on British membership of the EU can be seen as the culmination of this constitutional transformation.
