Democracy by delegation: The decision to hold referendums in the United Kingdom

Abstract

Following a tour d’horizon of the history of referendums in the UK, the paper considers the process of the initiation of referendums in the UK. While referendums in the 1970s were held as a result of intra-party divisions (i.e. in order to avoid political splits), referendums held or proposed by the New Labour government since 1996 seem to suggest that referendums are being used for a variety of reasons, including to give legitimacy to controversial decisions and to wrong-foot political opponents. © 2006 McDougall Trust, London.