Abstract
Despite constitutional provisions, the referendum was rarely used until the end of communist rule, when it precipitated the collapse of the Soviet bloc. Emerging democracies then used the referendum to ratify independence, to endorse constitutions and fundamental decisions, and later to sanction European Union and NATO membership. Increasingly, it has been deployed to entrench authoritarian rule and to modify boundaries that gained new significance with the fragmentation of formerly cohesive states.
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Hill, R.J., White, S. (2018). Russia, the Former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. In: Qvortrup, M. (eds) Referendums Around the World. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57798-2_4
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