Legal and organizational forms of realization of democracy by referendum in federative countries of western Europe

Purpose: To research the peculiarities of constitutional norms, regulating the right of citizens to a referendum in the Federative countries of Western Europe. Methodology: Historical-legal and formally-legal method was used. Results: The obtained peculiarities of constitutional norms and legal practice of holding referendums in the Federative countries of Western Europe and revealed the conditions that shaped the various national constitutional law concept of direct expression. Novelty/originality/value: A comparative study of constitutional norms and legal practice of holding referendums in Federative countries Western Europe: Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Belgium. For the first time in the Russian science of constitutional law is an attempt to bind the features of constitutional and legal model of the referendum with the national specifics of Federative relations in the countries under consideration.