Popular Referendum - Worldwide Implementation

Worldwide Implementation

In Europe, where the popular referendum (commonly known as abrogative referendum) was first introduced in Switzerland in St. Gallen canton in 1831; it now exists in Albania, Denmark (since 1953), Italy (since 1970), Malta, Russia and Switzerland (since 1874).

In Latin America, the popular referendum exists in Colombia, Uruguay and Venezuela.

In the United States, such a process exists, as of May 2009, in 23 states and one territory: Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Idaho, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, Wyoming and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The popular referendum was first introduced in the United States by South Dakota in 1898, and first used in the United States in 1906, in Oregon, two years after the initiative was used (in 1904, also in Oregon).