REFERENDUM, in the United States, the submission of the legislative acts of a represen tative assembly to the people for acceptance or rejection by popular vote. Under its Ameri can application, the referendum means that a specified time must elapse before a law (or, in case of a city, an ordinance) may go into effect, but if, during the period, a reasonable minority of the people should petition for a referendum on the law, it remains inoperative until after the following election, when it is either ratified or rejected by a majority of the popular votes. The period usually allowed be fore bills may become laws is 60 days and the percentage of voters who must sign a petition to secure a referendum varies from 5 per cent in South Dakota to 10 per cent in North Dakota. In 1906 Oregon amended her law so that the referendum might be invoked not only upon en tire laws but also upon individual items or parts of laws. Every measure to be submitted to thele, on demand of initiative or referendum petitions, must be filed not less than four months before the general election. A comprehensive ballot title for each measure is formulated by the attorney-general and a campaign book is prepared by the Secretary of State. The proposed law is printed in full in this book as well as any arguments that may be advanced by the advocates or opponents of the measure, the interested parties paying the exact cost of the paper, and printing required to present these arguments. A copy of this book must be mailed by the Secretary of State to every registered voter in the State eight weeks before the general election, the State bearing the cost of printing the text of the law and postage as a legislative expense. This enables the voter to familiarize himself with the authentic details of the proposition the fate of which he is called upon to determine and allows sufficient time for discussion between individuals and by every variety of organization through out the State. Under this device the people may kill bad laws and overthrow the work of tools of political bosses who intend to foster their private or political fortunes in the State legislative body; moreover, by a threat of invoking this remedy, much pernicious legisla tion can be prevented, franchise stealing elimi nated and the corrupting lobby rendered unprofitable. On the other hand if the legisla ture exhibits indifference to public require ments and persistently refuse to enact the necessary legislation, the people have an ef fective remedy in the initiative (q.v.) and to
a considerable extent in the recall (q.v.).
Since the 16th century a form of referen dum has existed in some of the cantons of Switzerland. Under the Swiss Constitution all constitutional amendments must be ratified by the electorate before they become law. Ii eight cantons an obligatory referendum is in vogue, requiring the submission to the electorate of every law and every expenditure above a fixed maximum, and no demand for such sub mission to the electors is necessary. Other measures of national importance must be sub mitted to popular vote if, within 90 clays after their publication, the governments of eight cantons or 30,000 votes throughout the republic should demand such submission. While the terms initiative and referendum were almost unknown in American politics prior to 189% yet an analogy is to be found in colonial days. In the Plymouth colony, even after the towns be to send deputies to their representative ferislature, the (whole body of the freemen* appeared at the June court to make laws and repeal such of the laws enacted by the legisla ture as appeared to the whole.* Even in the Massachusetts constitution of 1780 the bill of rights expressly reserved to the voters the right to instruct their representatives in the legislature, and both prior to and after the Revolution this right was freely exercised. Almost from the beginning, with a few excep tions, the State constitutions and amendments thereto have been referred to the voters of the State for ratification or rejection. (See CON VENTIONS, CONSTITUTIONAL). Some of the States have introduced another type of referen dum by amending their constitutions so that legislative acts, which relate to specific subjects (such as incurring a State debt or the sale of school lands), must be subjected to popular vote. In a few States, the constitutions of which contained no such authorization, the legislatures attempted to submit to popular vote miscellaneous questions of a perplexing nature, but this practice was checked by court decisions on the ground that such action on the part of representative assemblies was an unwarranted delegation of their law-making powers. In 1901 Illinois enacted a law which might be termed an initiative,* providing that upon petition of 10 per cent of the registered voters a given proposal, such as a of pub lic policy,* must be submitted to the electorate of the entire State. A similar law has been Passed in Delaware and several other States.