Plebiscite

The purposes of ‘old’ plebiscites (ie, the plebiscites held during the 18th and 19th centuries) can be used as solid criteria to differentiate ‘modern’ plebiscites (ie, plebiscites that took place in the 20th and 21st centuries) from other popular consultations. The reason for relying on ‘old’ plebiscites is that these seem to provide the only certain point of reference, the only anchor when trying to qualify a plebiscite, as witnessed, inter alia, by the fact that very few scholars would disagree that these consultations should be considered as such. Thus, this historical approach shows that in the 20th and 21st centuries, one can find a number of popular consultations 1) on territorial status, 2) on the form of government, 3) on the trust (or distrust) of a country’s leader, as well as 4) on other ‘exceptional’ and ‘political’ issues that—irrespective of their formal denominations (most of these consultations are indeed generally referred to as ‘referendums’)—fall within the notion of plebiscite