The European Union referendum of 23 June 2016 proved to be the trigger for the most prolonged period of political turbulence in the peacetime history of the UK; leading to major policy changes and realignments in the party-political system.

This book considers from an historical perspective the democratic device that provided the focus for this upheaval. Beginning in the late nineteenth century, it discusses how the idea of using referendums to resolve major political disputes first came onto the agenda, and why. It considers who advocated it, and in what circumstances. The book describes how referendums eventually came into use from the 1970s onwards, and the different patterns in their deployment in the decades that have followed. Major political figures, from Herbert Henry Asquith and Winston Churchill to Clement Attlee, Harold Wilson and Margaret Thatcher; to Tony Blair, David Cameron, and Boris Johnson form part of the story. Governments have come to power and fallen in the context of demands for referendums or the results they produced.

The authors provide detailed accounts of each of the 13 major referendums that have taken place. Referendums took place at UK and sub-UK level. They were held on the position of Northern Ireland (1973) and Scotland (2014) within the UK; on devolution to Wales (1979; 1997; 2011) and Scotland (1979; 1979); on the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement (1998); on devolution to London (1998) and North East England (2004); on the parliamentary voting system (2011); and on UK participation in European integration (1975; 1975). The book provides a constitutional and international perspective, and ask how far the original ideas lying behind the referendum were fulfilled in practice.

About the Author:
Andrew Blick, Reader in Politics and Contemporary History and Director of the Centre for British Politics and Government, King's College London, Lucy Atkinson, Senior Policy Advisor, HM Government, Matt Qvortrup, Professor of Political Science and International Relations, Coventry University

Andrew Blick is Reader in Politics and Contemporary History and Director of the Centre for British Politics and Government, at King's College London. He has worked in Parliament and at No.10, Downing Street. In 2019, the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust and Open Society Foundations funded him in devising a 'Citizens' Convention on UK Democracy'. His publications include Electrified Democracy (CUP, 2019), Stretching the Constitution (Bloomsbury/Hart, 2019), and Butler's British Political Facts (co-edited with R. Mortimer, Palgrave, 2018).

Lucy Atkinson is a Senior Policy Adviser at HM Government. She previously worked as Research Fellow at The Constitution Society, Research Assistant at the Centre for Social Justice, Development Officer at Renaissance Foundation, and Researcher at Faiths Forum for London.

Matt Qvortrup is Professor of Political Science and International Relations, Coventry University. Having received Oxford University Press' Law Prize 2012 for his research on referendums, he was awarded the BJPIR Prize by the Political Studies Association in 2013. Described by the BBC as 'the world's leading expert on referendums', Professor Qvortrup is editor of The European Political Science Review.