In the Netherlands, there have been few happy experiences with referenda, particularly constitutional referenda. This is evidenced by the fact that referenda on the constitution or fundamental constitutional arrangements have played a role only in the early history of the Kingdom of the...

In the late sixteenth century, the Dutch fought a successful war to secede from a major empire. They wrote a declaration of independence and adopted a federal model of Republican governance almost exactly two hundred years before the Americans. The Dutch republic and its political institutions...