ABSTRACT
To date there have been sixty referendums on EU-related matters making the referendum a key feature of the European integration process since the 1970s. Yet referendums on European integration come in many guises. Historically, most referendums have been related to membership issues or the approval of revisions to the EU treaties. The proliferation of referendums, in numbers as well as type, raises an intriguing empirical puzzle: What is the referendum device’s crisis solving or crisis inducing capacity? We argue that much will depend on the level of crisis resolution. A referendum may have crisis mediating properties at the micro level, e.g. for a party or coalition, but not at the meso level, e.g. for the member state. And a completely different dynamic may unfold at the macro level – the EU polity as a whole. In exploring these dynamics, we map the referendum terrain over time with a view to taking a closer look at a series of referendums that have potentially crisis solving/inducing properties at various levels of political authority. A two-fold empirical strategy is followed. The first is largely quantitative and focuses on mapping EU-related referendums with a view to identifying potential ‘crisis’ cases. We then examine relationships among core variables of interest. The second strategy is qualitative, and looks at a series of the most recent referendum cases to tease out potential ‘crisis’ solving/inducing properties.
