A referendum is one of the symbols of a modern democratic society where power formally belongs to the people. This is an act of direct expression of the will of the people on important issues in various fields. In fact, the country's leadership directly addresses citizens.
A referendum is an official procedure, the procedure for which is regulated by constitutional and legislative acts, and its results are legally binding. However, despite this, the results of referenda are often ignored by public authorities.
The following types of referenda are available (depending on the grounds for holding).
1. On the basis of scale, they are divided into national (that is, held throughout the country), regional (in the territory of one or more entities) and local (conducted at the local municipality level).
2. The content is divided into constitutional (that is, on the adoption of a new Constitution or amendments to the old), legislative (adoption of draft new laws) and advisory (on the direction of activities of bodies of higher, regional or local authorities).
3. According to the degree of obligatory conduct: obligatory (the conduct of which is regulated by the Constitution of the country), or optional (conducted at the initiative of the ruling bodies or the people).
4. In terms of importance: decisive (when the fate of a bill depends on the results of a popular vote), and advisory (inherently representing large-scale population polls and not having legal force).
5. By time: pre-parliamentary (the opinion of the people on a particular issue is specified before the adoption of the relevant law), post-parliamentary (after the adoption of the law) and extra-parliamentary (when the fate of a project is decided directly by popular vote).
A referendum is an event that has been practiced for quite some time. Even in ancient Rome, such a concept as a plebiscite was born (that is, a plebeian vote on various issues). At first, the Senate, consisting of patricians, ignored the results of the plebiscite, however, with the adoption of relevant laws (in the 5-4 centuries BC), this procedure received official state status and became synonymous with the word "law".
In recent history, the holding of popular referenda is also not uncommon. On April 25, 1993, the first referendum of the Russian Federation was held, where issues related to the procedure for the election of the President and the Council of People’s Deputies, as well as issues of the then social policy, were discussed. A little later (this year), the Constitution of the new state was adopted at a referendum. In the history of the USSR, there were no population polls as such; all issues were resolved at the highest party level in a narrow circle of proxies. The first and last Soviet referendum is an event held on March 17, 1991 ("On the issue of maintaining an updated union of friendly republics"), where more than half of the population spoke in favor, but despite this, a huge country disappeared from geographical maps.
