THE POLITICS AND ECONOMICS OF CONSTITUTIONAL CHOICE - VOTING IN CANADA 1992 NATIONAL REFERENDUM

National referendums have been used with increasing frequency in democ racies to decide important political issues, but systematic studies of voting behavior in these events remain in short supply. This article employs national survey data to study voting in Canada's 1992 national referendum on constitutional reform. Attitudes toward the referendum proposal and process and its possible consequences for the country had important effects on the vote. However, net of these and other factor s, voters' economic evaluations were influential. The political econom y of the vote was such that widespread dissatisfaction with a falterin g economy eroded support for the referendum proposal by lowering suppo rt for a government that had negotiated the constitutional accord and campaigned vigorously on its behalf.