Are “Referendum” and “Plebiscite” the same in the meaning, or different in the meaning and nuance?
There was the following passage in the article that came under the title, “European politics are swinging to the right” in Time magazine (Sept.22 issue):
“It won’t end with the U.K. Right wing parties in France, the Netherlands and elsewhere have called for their own Brexit-style plebiscites on E.U. membership. — The nationalist government in Hungary even called a referendum on the issue for Oct. 2, and the results are practically a foregone conclusion.
From the phrase, “Hungary even called a referendum,” I thought “referendum” has the stronger nuance of the effect of votes. However, when I checked two English dictionaries at hand, it looks like to me there’s little or almost no difference of the meaning between “referendum” and “plebiscite.”
Oxford Dictionary of English (2010) definitions:
Referendum: a general vote by electorates on a single political question which has been referred to them for a direct question.
Plebiscite: the direct vote of all the members of an electorate on an important public question.
Oxford Advanced Leaners Dictionary (2000, 6th Ed.) definitions:
Referendum: an occasion when all the people of country can vote on an important issue.
Plebiscite: a vote by the people of a country or a region on an issue that is very important.
Collins Cobuild English Dictionary (4th Ed.) definitions:
Referendum: If a country holds a referendum on a particular policy, they ask the people to vote on the policy and show whether or not they agree with it.
Plebiscite: a direct vote by the people of a country or region in which they say whether they agree or disagree with a particular policy, for example whether a region should become an independent state.
Are the meanings of “Referendum” and “Plebiscite” the same and flatly interchangeable, or different? If they are different, then what is the difference in meaning and nuance?
Solution 1:
A plebiscite is a vote of the people. (Strictly it's a vote of "the common people" and could perhaps exclude people of a higher status [the word comes from Ancient Rome where it would exclude the Senate from the vote, and also not be binding on the Senate] but I don't think there's anywhere this is done today).
A referendum is a vote on an issue that has been referred to the people by the government (including if there is a mechanism by which the people can insist they do so).
Since a referendum involves the people voting, all referenda are plebiscites. Since about the only practical reason why there would be a vote of the people (plebiscite) is that an issue had been referred to them (referendum) in practice all plebiscites are referenda. In practice therefore they are the same.
As such, pretty much synonyms.
However, being terms about political procedure, they each have slightly different definitions in different jurisdictions and as such they are sometimes different in the contexts of a particular legal system.
In both Ireland and Australia referendum is used to refer to a vote to amend the constitution and plebiscite on any other matter. That difference is not the same in other jurisdictions.
It's often, but not always, the case that referenda are binding and plebiscites are not (though gauging the opinion of the people and then ignoring it puts any government into a fraught position). In the UK though their recent non-binding vote on leaving the EU was referred to as a "referendum". This might owe something to suspiciously-run plebiscites having been conducted in countries they were enemies of, or soon to become enemies of, at the time (France under Napoleon, Germany under Hitler), giving referendum a fairer connotation in that country than plebiscite.
Solution 2:
In Australia, the difference between a referendum and a plebiscite is that the former refers to binding votes held to amend the Australian constitution, whereas the latter is a non-binding vote about something other than the Australian constitution. From the Wikipedia article Referendums in Australia (note: some fancy people pluralise "Referendum" as "Referenda"):
Referendums in Australia are polls held in Australia to approve Parliament-proposed changes to the Australian Constitution or a state or territory. Non-binding polls are usually referred to as plebiscites.
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Similar to a referendum is a plebiscite, which is conducted by the government to decide a matter relating to ordinary statute law, an advisory question of policy, or as a prelude to the submission of a formal referendum question, rather than a binding and entrenched alteration (amendment) to the Constitution. Plebiscites can offer a variety of options, rather than a simple yes/no question. Three plebiscites have occurred as of 2010. Unlike in referendums, voting in a plebiscite has traditionally been optional.
Australia has had three plebiscites: two about conscription in WWI, and one about our national song. The current government in Australia has also proposed a plebiscite about same-sex marriage in Australia, which would not be binding and doesn't modify the constitution (unlike Japan, marriage is not defined in the constitution, it merely indicates that federal parliament has the power to make laws about marriage)