In modern constltutlonal law, the name "plebiscite" has been given to a vote of the entire people, (that is, the aggregate of the enfranchised Indlvlduals composlng a state or nation.) expressing thelr cholce for or against a proposed law or en-actment, submitted to them, and whlch, lf adopted, wlll work a radical change in the constltntlon. or whlch is beyond the powers of the regular leglslatlve body. The proceeding is extraordinary, and is generally revolutionary in lts character; an example of which may be seen in the plebiscites submitted to the French .people by Louis Napoleon, whereby the Second Empire wns es-tablished. But the -principle of the plebiscite has been incorporated in the modern Swlss constltutlon, (under the name of “referendum,") by whlch a revision of the con-stltutlon must be undertaken when demand-ed by the vote of fifty thousand Swiss citl-zens. Maine, Popular Govt 40, 96
Source: Black's Law Dictionary 2nd Ed (1910)
