Referendum

Referendum, practice of submitting an issue to the popular vote. The proposal or issue can itself be called a referendum. In government, the “petition referendum” originates with the voters and provides that a proposed law be put to a popular vote before it can go into effect. In the U.S., the signatures of from 5 to 10 percent of the registered voters are required to validate such a petition and assure that the referendum will be put on an early ballot. The “optional referendum” originates with a legislative body wishing to require that a specific majority of the voters accept a measure before it can become official.

So-called statutory and constitutional referendums are also required in some governmental units as a part of the procedures through which certain measures, such as bond issues, taxes, and constitutional amendments, become valid. Such referendums commonly require more than a simple majority for approval. The state of California requires a two-thirds majority for the validation of bond issues, and most states require that proportion for constitutional amendments. Both referendum and initiative, a device by which voters initiate specific laws through petition, are methods of involving voters directly in the legislative processes of governments.

Antecedents for referendum have been found in the democratic institutions of ancient Greece, the practices of Germanic tribes, the town meetings of colonial New England, and the democracy of modern Switzerland. The U.S. Constitution was referred to state conventions for approval and was thus ratified by a form of referendum. Popular referendums are often used to amend state constitutions or pass state laws, but there is no provision in the Constitution for national referendums. In 1825 the Maryland legislature referred the question of a public school system to the voters; since then many similar questions have been so referred. In 1898 South Dakota became the first state to amend its constitution to provide for optional and petition referendums.

In the early 20th century the movement toward direct legislation reflected a popular revulsion against legislative corruption and a consequent distrust of representative democracy. By 1920 South Dakota, Utah, Oregon, Nevada, Montana, Oklahoma, Maine, Michigan, Missouri, Arkansas, Colorado, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Idaho, Nebraska, Ohio, Washington, North Dakota, Maryland, and Massachusetts had adopted the referendum as a check on their state legislatures. Since then only Alaska has adopted such legislation. After the San Francisco home-rule charter of 1898 authorized initiative and referendum, hundreds of cities made provisions for direct legislation in municipal affairs. The constitutionality of direct legislation was challenged in Oregon, where opponents held that it was an abridgment of the representative, or republican, form of government, but in 1912 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that initiative and referendum do not deny legislative bodies their proper functions.

In the 1930s a proposed constitutional amendment that would have required a popular vote before the U.S. could engage in a war was defeated by Congress. See Election; Plebiscite; Recall.