Plebiscite

Plebiscite, the name given, in the political phraseology of modern France, to a decree of the nation obtained by an appeal to universal suffrage. Thus, Louis Napoleon was chosen president, and subsequently emperor, by a plebiscite, and in 1870 obtained the sanction of still a third one (7½ million votes). The word is borrowed from the Latin; but the plebiscitum of the Romans properly meant only a law passed at the Comitia Tributa—i.e. assembly of the plebs, or 'commons,' as distinguished from the nobles. The word is often used in Britain for an attempt to secure an expression of opinion on some special point of local interest by all the inhabitants of a district—often by means of return post-cards.