The Referendum in British Politics- Experiences and Controversies since the 1970s

This work examines the British referendum since the 1970s while primarilyfocusing on the question whether the referendum could be regarded as anew understanding of democracy in the UK. It is investigated whether thisapproach is true or whether the referendum is rather a clever opportunisticdevice which supports political manipulation and thus helps to impose theinterests of its triggers. In order to answer those questions it is necessary toelaborate on the constitution and its main principle parliamentarysovereignty. The second part of this work will offer a detailed descriptiveintroduction to all eight referendums that have been carried out so far in theUK intending to inform about the circumstances of each individualreferendum. The main part will then form the assessment of thesereferendums. Controversies and inconsistencies of the governmental actionsare addressed in order to find an answer to the central question of this workwhether the referendum is part of a changing democracy in Britain orwhether it is rather understood as a tactic of the government. This work isdirected towards students of British cultural and political studies and towardsthose who do research in the field of the referendum. It is also addressed toreaders with a general interest in the topic.