REFERENDUM
The referendum falls among the institutions of direct democracy. These share in common the personal participation—rather than through representatives (the so-called "indirect or representative democracy")—of those possessing electoral rights in the formation of a legally relevant decision. Its political foundation is found in contractualist doctrines, according to which, strictly speaking, the direct expression of the popular will should be the rule, and the representative exception. If, instead, the opposite occurs, this is due to insurmountable practical necessities. Institutions of direct democracy are in fact rarely adopted, except, and in limited ways, in some countries where they have a certain tradition, such as Switzerland and the United States of America, or if they exist in the abstract, they are not in fact applied, as in the U.S.S.R.
There are, however, events and cases for which it appears just and appropriate that there be an explicit manifestation of the people’s will; whether this is then an organ of the State or not is a debated and controversial question, in connection with the further question of whether it is an organ in the exercise of the electoral function.
In an excessively broad sense, all institutions of direct democracy could be included under the referendum, but within this framework it is customary to distinguish, besides the disputed direct election of the head of state, the plebiscite, the veto, the recall of a mandate (individual or for the early dissolution of Parliament), legislative initiative, and the referendum in the strict sense (for the adoption or rejection of a law or measure). The distinctions are not always clear, particularly between plebiscite and referendum; indeed, in the abstractly delineated categories, they do not always find exact application, and new laws and complex legislative provisions. In general, it may be said that the plebiscite is called on an ad hoc basis in extraordinary circumstances, whereas the referendum can be prepared and regulated in an ordinary manner; the former may have application in international law as well as domestic (constitutional) law, the latter only in domestic (constitutional and administrative) law; according to at least one authoritative opinion, the former concerns the approval or disapproval of a fact or event with effects on the formation or structure of the State or its government, the latter on a normative or otherwise juridical act.
In Italy, plebiscites have been held for the annexation of various territories to the Kingdom of Sardinia first and then to the Kingdom of Italy, and a referendum was held on 2 June 1946 to choose the institutional form (monarchy or republic).
Some provisions of the new Constitution envisage the referendum in several instances, with a much wider adoption of it compared to the charters of other countries, thus accentuating its character as a mixed democracy, that is, both direct and representative. It remains to be seen, however, what actual application it will have, in the absence as yet of the laws that would make its application possible.