Europe is entering the ‘age of the referendum’, but there is nothing to fear for European democracy if referendums are properly regulated

Referendums have become increasingly common occurrences in European states in recent decades. Stephen Tierney writes on some of the potential benefits and dangers of using referendums to solve key constitutional questions. He writes that while referendums can undermine democracy if used incorrectly, they generally suffer from problems of practice rather than principle and these problems can be overcome in healthy democracies by suitable referendum design.