The 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 the 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 referendums are often ignored by public authorities.
There are the following types of referenda (depending on the basis for holding).
1. On the basis of scale, they are divided into national (that is, held throughout the country), regional (on the territory of one or more subjects) and local (conducted at the level of the local municipality).
2. By content, they are divided into constitutional (that is, on the adoption of a new Constitution or amendments to the old one), legislative (adoption of draft new laws) and advisory (onquestions of the direction of activity of the supreme, regional or local authorities).
3. According to the degree of obligation: mandatory (which is regulated by the Constitution of the country), or optional (conducted at the initiative of the ruling bodies or the people).
4. In order of importance: decisive (when the fate of a particular bill depends on the results of a popular vote), and advisory (in essence, representing large-scale population surveys and having no 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).
The referendum is an event that has been practiced since quite ancient times. Even in ancient Rome, such a thing as a plebiscite (that is, the voting of the plebeians on various issues) was born. At first, the Senate, consisting of patricians, ignored the results of the plebiscite, however, with the adoption of relevant laws (in the 5th-4th centuries BC), this procedure received official state status and became synonymous with the word "law".
In recent history, nationwide referendums are also not uncommon. On April 25, 1993, the first referendum of the Russian Federation was held, where issues related to the procedure for electing the President and the Council of People's Deputies, as well as issues of the then social policy being pursued were discussed. A little later (in this veryyear) the Constitution of the new state was adopted in a referendum. In the history of the USSR, there were no surveys of the population as such, all issues were resolved at the highest party level in a narrow circle of trusted persons. The first and last Soviet referendum was an event held on March 17, 1991 ("On the issue of maintaining a renewed union of friendly republics"), where more than half of the population voted "FOR", but, despite this, the huge country disappeared from geographical maps.
