Financing Referendums and Initiatives in the Baltic States

Abstract

Having gained independence following the collapse of the Russian Empire, at the end of the First World War, the three Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania set about constructing their states. In writing their constitutions in the early 1920s, all three states chose parliamentary models with clauses for the use of direct democracy. However, by 1934 all three had abandoned their inter-war constitutions and were in the thrall of benign authoritarian dictatorships. The Second World War saw Baltic independence swept away by foreign invasion. The Baltic States were incorporated into the Soviet Union at the end of the war, only re-emerging on the international stage in 1991, following the collapse of the Soviet Union.KeywordsEuropean UnionPolitical PartyPolitical CampaignVoter TurnoutDirect DemocracyThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.