This book portrays the referendum as a consequence of elite bargaining. Mark Walker describes this electoral device as one that arises from an executive–legislative struggle where competing groups attempt to gain political legitimacy from the masses, even in nondemocratic states. Political elites thus use the referendum to settle disputes that appear irresolvable in the traditional chambers of the power, or, as E. E. Schattschneider indicated in The Semi-Sovereign People (1960), to expand the scope of the conflict to enhance one's political advantage. The referendum process is thus subject to manipulation—by the choice of wording, the timing of the vote, the subject matter, and even the interpretation of the results.

Walker's inquiry first centers on an analysis of France under de Gaulle (1958–1969). He also examines five Chilean referenda—one in 1925, and four under Augusto Pinochet's regime in 1978, 1980, 1988, and 1989. (Salvador Allende was to have announced a sixth in September 1973.) Most of the Chilean referenda were constitutional in nature and passed by large margins, although Pinochet's attempt to extend his presidency indefinitely failed decisively in 1988. Walker views these French and Chilean referenda as thinly disguised attempts at executive aggrandizement. When de Gaulle and Pinochet failed in their efforts, it was simply because they misperceived public sentiments at the time.

It is curious why the author did not also address more contemporary French referenda, such as the 1992 referendum on the Maastricht Treaty. This referendum, which narrowly passed during François Mitterrand's tenure in office (with 51.05% approval), more clearly fits Walker's hypothesis about elites seeking legitimacy. The examples from the de Gaulle era seem only to confirm the megalomaniac desire of de Gaulle to threaten to resign (if a referendum failed) until French voters had finally had enough of such tactics. This example also dovetails closely with the issue of the ambiguity of referendum results, which the author emphasizes later in his Soviet and Russian examples.

The reminder of The Strategic Use of Referendums is devoted to Walker's examination of the myriad referenda, and counterreferenda from the republics, under Mikhail Gorbachev's rule in the Soviet Union in 1991, and the continued use of this device in Russia under Boris Yeltsin. The Soviet Union was a case in which the conflict was not between an executive and a legislature but between institutions of different federal and regional structures, where the main issue was the degree of regional autonomy. However, in Russia in 1993, the referendum again was used as a weapon in the traditional executive–legislative struggle, as Yeltsin battled the Congress of People's Deputies.

This excellent comparative work is very thorough, but it does tend to emphasize those cases in which the hypothesized relationships are confirmed. Walker is convinced that the referendum process is one that is essentially manipulative of the masses, either by the elites or the media that do their bidding: “[T]his study argues that the kind of manipulation possible in referendum campaigns strains the very democratic nature of the process itself” (p. 2). His description of the manipulative aspects of the referendum process does not seem all that different from what we have come to expect from candidate-centered elections, or even public opinion polling. Yet in making this argument, he joins the chorus of those who make similar claims about the dominance of moneyed interests in initiative and referendum processes in the United States (David Broder, Democracy Derailed: Initiative Campaigns and the Power of Money, 2000). This analysis is quite credible, and Walker has built a very convincing case with his examples from these four countries.

Such electoral appeals to the public are “all over the map” with regard to motivations, intentions, and results, and yet these alternative scenarios are given short shrift in this book. Sometimes the referendum is a simple absolution of responsibility on controversial issues, particularly involving taxes. Legislatures may feel pressed to reform the status quo but are unwilling to exhaust the political capital necessary to legislate such changes, and so they instead abdicate responsibility. At other times and places, the referendum can be a grassroots appeal to address a grievance that simply is not salient to certain political leaders, such as campaign financing reform or extension of the franchise. Here, governors or other executives may indeed turn to the public to gather support for their policy preferences, but it is not simply a battle against one's enemies as much as a desire for policy reform. Mark Walker has done an excellent job in thoroughly describing the strategic aspect of referenda in four different contexts; it is to his credit that he raises many other issues in the process of this extensive and provocative analysis.