REFERENDUM (Neo-Lat. nom. sg. neu. of Lat. referendus, to be referred, gertmdive of referre, to refer, bear back). The term applied to the practice of submitting laws to the elec torate for approval or rejection. In the appli cation of the referendum the law is first formu lated by the legislative body or the constituent assembly and is then submitted to the electorate. The logical complement of the referendum is the initiative, by means of which the people are en abled to draw up their own measures and have them voted on without the intermediation of the Legislature. By this method a petition signed by a certain proportion of tln• voting constituency is presented to the Legislature requesting that a certain measure be submitted to the popular vote. This the Legislature is bound to do with out change in the measure, although it may sub mit an alternative measure to be voted on at the same time. In ,Switzerland, in every canton of the Confederation except Freiburg, the referen dum in form or another is established by law. In about one-half of the canton: the refer endum is 'optional' or 'facultative.' that is, the laws are submitted to the popular vote only when submission 1.3: petition of a certain per cent. of the voting constituency is demanded. In the others it is :obligatory,' that is. the laws must be submitted without petition. It is always obliga tory in the case of proposed eonstitutionad changes, whether cantonal or Federal. In the domain 'of ordinary legislation it is usually em ployed only in the case of important measures of a general character. Since 1874 the referendum has been a feature of the government of the Confederation. The Constitution provides that upon the demand of eight cantons or 30.000 any Federal law of general application must be submitted to the people. During the first nineteen years after its adoption by the Federal Government 20 laws out of a total of 150 were thus submitted, 14 being ratified and 6 re jected. The initiative was adopted by the Fed eral Government in 1891 as a means of in troducing proposals to revise the Constitution. See SwirzEnLaND, section on Goren/men/.
In the United States the referendum is employed in one form or another in every State and mu nicipality. Very early in our history it became
an established principle of American law that all State Constitutions and proposed amendments should depend for their validity upon the ratifica tion of time electorate at the polls. From this it was but a step to the position that propositions to call constitutional conventions should be made a subject for the referendum and this practice became in time well established. Not only has the referendum been employed in the United States for the adoption of organic laws, but it has been used quite as often or more often in the enactment of statutes. It was first employed to determine the question of incorporation of towns, the organization of school districts and counties, the incurring of loans, the undertaking of public improvements, etc. One of the most general uses of the referendum is the determination whether towns and cities shall permit the sale of intoxi cating liquors. This method was first employed in Rhode Island in 1845. Another favorite sub ject of the referendum has been the question of the location of State capitals and county-seats. The referendum has never been employed by the Federal Government for general purposes, al though an net of Congress of 1846 providing for a recession of a part of the District of Columbia to Virginia was submitted to a vote of the quali fied voters of the district.
The question early arose as to whether the use of the referendum was permissible where not expressly authorized by the State Constitution. From 1826 to 1847 the courts of various States upheld the constitutionality of legislative acts providing for the use of the referendum on the ground that it was not a delegation of legislative power, hut simply popular coiiperation. Beginning with a decision of the Delaware Supreme Court in 1847, several opinions were given against this view which had the effect of inducing the incor poration of provisions in the constitutions authorizing the referendum. The most valuable work on the referendum is that by Oberboltzer (New York, 1900). Consult also CleVeland, The Growth of Democracy in the United States (Chi cago, 1898).