Vanishing Referendums
A man comes to a lawyers: — Tell me, do I have the right… — Of course you do! — But you didn’t even listen. Do I have the right… — I’ve told you, you do. — Please, let me finish! Do I have the right… — How many times should I tell you?! You do!!! — Well, great! So I can… — Uh, no. Of course you can’t. Soviet joke Today, when we hear “referendum” we think of Brexit. But until the black swan of Britain leaving the EU blocked our view, “referendum” usually meant Switzerland. I don’t have any statistical data at hand, but it’s a safe bet to say that most people think that Switzerland is the only country in the world with legal provisions for regular referendums. Those who’s been reading this blog know that there are two more countries where people have a right to vote in referendums on a wide variety of issues: Liechtenstein and Taiwan. Is this it? By no means. It’s just a tiny fraction of the actual number. If we look at the number of countries that have legal pro
