Referendums from below: some reflections

• Main Authors: Porta, Donatella della, O’Connor, Francis, Portos, Martín, Ribas, Anna Subirats
• Format: Book Part
• Language: English
• Published: Policy Press 2017
• Subjects: Iceland
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1332/policypress/9781447333418.003.0006

This book has examined how referendums from below serve as opportunities that are particularly conducive to broadening participation as well as enhancing political engagement and understanding among the electorate. Using the campaigns in Scotland, Catalonia and Italy, the book has provided evidence that referendums offer social movements the chance to make a decisive contribution to issues of substantial political importance. By analyzing these movements' resource mobilisation, appropriation of opportunities, and capacity to develop resonant frames, the book has shown how movements have shaped political debates. This concluding chapter summarises the book's main ideas and contributions and considers how some of the traits and patterns identified in the Catalan, Scottish and Italian cases hold in two additional settings: the Icesave referendum in Iceland and the consultation on the Troika's ultimatum in Greece.