1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Plebiscite

PLEBISCITE (Lat. plebiscitum, a decree of the plebs), a term borrowed from the French for a Vote of all the electors in a country taken on some specific question (see also Referendum). The most familiar example of the use of the plebiscite in French history was in 1852, when the coup d’état of 1851 was confirmed and the title of emperor was given to Napoleon III. In Roman constitutional law the plebiscitum was a decree enacted in the assembly of the plebs, the comitia tributa, presided over by a plebeian magistrate.