Abstract
Referendums have played an important role in West European politics in recent years. Votes on European integration—such as the Brexit vote in Britain in 2016, is a case in point, and is widely seen as a rebuke to the governing elite. Generally, however, voters in Western Europe have voted with the government. The chapter shows that the electorate have tended to vote against the government if the incumbent has been in office for a long time. There is also evidence that a leading question on the ballot can have an impact on the voters’ choice.
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Qvortrup, M. (2018). Western Europe. In: Qvortrup, M. (eds) Referendums Around the World. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57798-2_2
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