Referendum in Italy and Ireland: Two Different Ideas of Direct Democracy and Popular Sovereignty

Abstract

This paper proposes a juridical comparison between Italian and Ireland constitutional systems about the crucial issue of referendum. Particularly, it focalizes this comparison to the constitutional referendum in both countries: a very interesting
comparison field to understand some fundamental elements of these two constitutional Charters. In this context, the comparative perspective about direct democracy is very useful to show the different ideas of popular sovereignty inside Italian and Irish constitutionalism, and to argue about the historical and theoretical reasons of this difference.