Guest editorial introduction : referendums in small states and territories : a comparative analysis

Abstract

This guest editorial introduces a special section exploring the politics of referendums in small states and territories through a comparative lens. While referendums are commonly viewed as decisive instruments of popular sovereignty, the cases assembled here demonstrate that, in small polities, they rarely deliver clear or final resolutions. Drawing principally on examples from Europe, the Caribbean, and the Pacific, the section explores how structural conditions such as economic vulnerability, demographic scale, colonial legacies, and unequal relations with metropolitan powers shape referendum campaigns and outcomes. Contributors demonstrate that referendums often function less as mechanisms of settlement than as iterative moments within longer constitutional trajectories defined by uncertainty, negotiation, and managed ambiguity. Particular attention is paid to referendum design, franchise boundaries, legitimacy, and the emotional and narrative dimensions of campaigning. Taken together, the articles argue that referendums in small states and territories are best understood as contingent, politically embedded processes whose democratic value depends on context, sequencing, and integration within broader constitutional debates.