Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Plebiscite |
PlebisciteNoun1. A vote by the electorate determining public opinion on a question of national importance. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "plebiscite" was first used: 1860. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Satire | PLEBISCITE, n. A popular vote to ascertain the will of the sovereign. Source: Devil's Dictionary. |
Literature | Plebiscite (3 syl.). A decree of the people. In Roman history, a law enacted by the "comitia" or assembly of tribes. In France, the resolutions adopted in the Revolution by the voice of the people, and the general votes given during the Second Empire- such as the general vote to elect Napoleon III. emperor of the French. Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Politics & International Affaires | A direct vote of qualified electors of a State in regard to some important public issue. Source: European Union. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
A referendum or plebiscite (plurals referenda, plebiscites) is a general poll on a legislative or constitutional issue.
Referendum is the referring of a political question to a direct vote of the electorate.
A consultative referendum (also called an advisory referendum) leaves the interpretation of the vote to the legislature.
A binding referendum is possible only in some countries, a certain size of the participating electorate often being a prerequisite.
A plebiscite is directed to all citizens, regardless of their franchise. A plebiscite, in its narrow sense, is the request for approval of a (radical) governmental decree or approval of the general policies of the government, typically in states without Democracy, Parliamentarism or a representative parliament.
Referenda are a key measure in semi-direct democracy and the only measure in a pure direct democracy. Few believe that such "rule by poll" is always desirable. For once, referendums may lead to inconsistent politics, such as increasing spending on certain issues while lowering taxes (both of which are likely to be favored by many voters). Voters may be subject to disinformation campaign, especially on emotional issues. Also, referendums may be inadequate for very technical issues. However, most advocates of grassroots democracy propose measures that would make them far more common.
In most jurisdictions practicing representative democracy, referenda, the calling of which can only be achieved through the act of a legislature, are a relatively rare event.
Constitutions, in many jurisdictions, are modifiable only by referendum. In part this is due to the arguments above, to ensure that the cases for and against change are concentrated at one point in time for a balanced presentation to the public.
However, in some jurisdictions, some non-constitutional issues are put to referenda, which can be initiated by a petition of a certain proportion of voters. One such measure is representative recall which permits voters (or party members) in one district to "fire" their elected representative. This would require a referendum only in the firing district.
See also: initiative, approval voting, political science, representative recall
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Referendum."
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Command | Dictation; dictate, mandate; caveat, decree, senatus consultum; precept; prescript, rescript; writ, ordination, bull, ex cathedra pronouncement, edict, decretal, dispensation, prescription, brevet, placit, ukase, ukaz, firman, hatti-sherif, warrant, passport, mittimus, mandamus, summons, subpoena, nisi prius, interpellation, citation; word, word of command; mot d'ordre; bugle call, trumpet call; beat of drum, tattoo; order of the day; enactment; (law); plebiscite; (choice). |
Government | Election, poll, ballot, vote, referendum, recall, initiative, voice, suffrage, plumper, cumulative vote, plebiscitum, plebiscite, vox populi; electioneering; voting; Verb: elective franchise; straight ticket; opinion poll, popularity poll. |
Judgment | Plebiscite, voice, casting vote; vote; (choice); opinion; (belief); good judgment; (wisdom). |
Legality | Legislature; law, code, corpus juris, pandect, charter, enactment, statute, rule; canon; (precept); ordinance, institution, regulation; bylaw, byelaw; decree; (order); ordonnance; standing order; plebiscite; (choice). |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Plebiscite |
| English words defined with "plebiscite": Plebiscitary. (references) |
| Domain | Title |
Books |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit |  | Vous voulez vivre mieux sans crainte de l'avenir, une France souveraine, independante, cooperant avec tous les pays, dans ... dites non au referendum plebiscite. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Author | Date | Quotation |
Treaty of Versailles | 1919 | The regime under which this plebiscite will be taken and given effect to is laid down in the Annex hereto. (reference) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Economic History | Hungary | The first free parliamentary election, held in May 1990, was a plebiscite of sorts on the communist past. (references) |
Pakistan | India and Pakistan agreed with Indian resolutions which called for a UN-supervised plebiscite to determine the state's future. (references) | |
Chile | In a plebiscite on October 5, 1988, General Pinochet was denied a second 8-year term as president. (references) | |
Minorities | Philippines | A largely free, fair, and peaceful plebiscite for an expanded ARMM, called for in the 1996 peace agreement between the Government and the MNLF, was held in August, with one additional province and one additional city voting to join the ARMM regional government. (references) |
Political Economy | Uzbekistan | In December the Parliament voted to schedule a January 2002 plebiscite, which would, as part of a constitutional reform, extend Karimov's term in office for an additional 2 years. (references) |
Uzbekistan | First chosen president in a 1991 election that most observers considered neither free nor fair, Karimov had his stay in office extended to 2000 by a 1995 plebiscite. (references) | |
Political Rights | Philippines | In August a plebiscite was held on the question of expanding the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). (references) |
Worker Rights | Brazil | For example, the CUT joined with the National Conference of Bishops, the Landless Movement (MST), and a variety of NGO's to conduct a national plebiscite on debt repayment in September 2000 and to organize the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre in January 2001. The major union centrals have close relationships with left-of-center political parties and often coordinate actions with party leaders. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Plebiscite" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Plebiscite" is used about 54 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 100% | 54 | 46,184 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
plebiscite | 21 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "plebiscite"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | plebishit, referendum (referendum). (various references) | |
Arabic | جرى إستفتاء, إنتخب عع طريق الإستفتاء, إستفتى, إستفتاء عام, إستفتاء شعبي (referendum). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | плебисцит. (various references) | |
Chinese | 公民投票 (referendum). (various references) | |
Czech | plebiscit, hlasování (ballot, poll, vote). (various references) | |
Danish | afstemming om personlig tillid. (various references) | |
Dutch | volksstemming. (various references) | |
Farsi | مراجعه باراء عمومی , مردم خواست , همه پرسی (Referendum), رای قاطبه مردم . (various references) | |
Finnish | kansanäänestys (referendum). (various references) | |
French | plébiscite. (various references) | |
German | Volksabstimmung, Plebiszit. (various references) | |
Greek | δημοψήφισμα (referendum). (various references) | |
Hebrew | משאל עם (referendum). (various references) | |
Hungarian | népszavazás (popular vote, referendum). (various references) | |
Italian | plebiscito. (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 人民投票 (referendum), 一般投票 (popular vote, referendum). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | いっぱ"とうひょう (popular vote, referendum), じ"み"とうひょう (referendum). (various references) | |
Manx | pobble-vriwnys. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | ebisciteplay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | plebiscito (referendum). (various references) | |
Romanian | plebiscit. (various references) | |
Russian | плебисцит. (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | plebiscit. (various references) | |
Spanish | plebiscito. (various references) | |
Swedish | folkomröstning (referendum). (various references) | |
Turkish | referandum (referendum), halk tabakasının temsil ettiği hukuk, halk oylaması. (various references) | |
Ukrainian | плебісцит. (various references) | |
Vietnamese | cuộc bỏ phiếu to n dân. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | plebiscitum. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "plebiscite": plebiscites. (additional references) | |
| |
"Plebiscite" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: piebiscite, plebescite, plebicite, plebisite, plebscite. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "plebiscite" (pronounced ple"busī't or plē"busī't) |
| 4 | -u s ī' t | andesite, anthracite, leukocyte, lymphocyte, magnesite, parasite, phagocyte. |
| 3 | -s ī' t | calcite, eyesight, foresight, granulocyte, hindsight, insight, oversight, website. |
| 4 | -u s ī' t | andesite, anthracite, leukocyte, lymphocyte, magnesite, parasite, phagocyte. |
| 3 | -s ī' t | calcite, eyesight, foresight, granulocyte, hindsight, insight, oversight, website. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "b-c-e-e-i-i-l-p-s-t" | |
-3 letters: eclipse, elicits, epistle, pelites, pelitic, pieties, sectile. | |
-4 letters: belies, betels, betise, biceps, bisect, bleeps, blites, celebs, cities, clepes, elects, elicit, elites, ibices, iciest, listee, pelite, pestle, pieces, pistil, pities, plebes, select, septic, specie, splice, stelic, stipel. | |
-5 letters: beeps, beets, belie, belts, beset, betel, bices, biles, bites, bleep, blest, blets, blips, blite, ceils, celeb. | |
| Words containing the letters "b-c-e-e-i-i-l-p-s-t" | |
+1 letter: plebiscites. | |
+3 letters: insusceptible. | |
+4 letters: respectability, subspecialties. | |
+5 letters: acceptabilities, impeccabilities, replicabilities. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Crosswords 3. Usage: Commercial 4. Images: Photo Album | 5. Quotations: Historic 6. Quotations: Non-fiction 7. Usage Frequency 8. Expressions: Internet | 9. Translations: Modern 10. Translations: Ancient 11. Derivations 12. Rhymes | 13. Anagrams 14. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
