Referendum as a Form of Direct Democracy in Azerbaijan: Constitutional and Legal Aspects
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.57125/FEL.2026.03.25.02Keywords:
citizen participation, hybrid regimes, initiation mechanisms, legal-institutional analysis, popular sovereignty, post-soviet politics.Abstract
The article conducts a constitutional and legal study of the referendum as an institution of direct democracy in Azerbaijan and assesses its compliance with the standards of participatory democracy. The purpose of the study is to analyse the legal system regulating referendums, and study the practice of their application during the key constitutional referendums of 1995, 2009 and 2016. The study is based on a mixed-methods design that combines regulatory and legal analyses of constitutional and legislative acts, content analysis of official documents, and an empirical survey of 50 law students. The results show that Azerbaijan's referendum model is constitutionally designed as a hierarchical, plebiscitary mechanism. Analysis of the practice of holding referendums reveals a consistent tendency for the executive branch to initiate “package” constitutional changes, which are approved with extremely high official support. Empirical data also showed that respondents perceive the referendum mainly as a formal, state-centric procedure, identifying legal and procedural restrictions, rather than public apathy, as the key obstacle to citizen participation. The conclusion is drawn that there is a fundamental gap between the constitutional theory of direct democracy and real political practice in Azerbaijan, in which the referendum primarily serves a legitimising function for the executive branch rather than an instrument of civil self-government. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the methodological synthesis that enables analysis of direct democracy institutions and the formation of evidence-based conclusions relevant to further constitutional reforms.
References
Akerboom, S., & Craig, R. K. (2022). How law structures public participation in environmental decision making: A comparative law approach. Environmental Policy and Governance, 32(3), 232–246. https://doi.org/10.1002/eet.1986
Atar, E., & Şennur, K. (2024). Local governance reforms in post-Soviet Azerbaijan: A comprehensive analysis of structural changes and reform initiatives. JANUS.NET e-Journal of International Relations, 15(2). https://doi.org/10.26619/1647-7251.15.2.11
Babayev, A., & Mahmudov, K. (2023). The provocative effects of democratisation: Assessing the relationship between regime transition in Armenia and the escalation of the Karabakh conflict, 2018–2020. Democratization, 30(5), 894–913. https://doi.org/10.1080/13510347.2023.2195168
Berglund, C., & Storm, K.-J. (2025). Cause without rebels? Rise and fall of the Talish–Mughan Autonomous Republic in Azerbaijan. Central Asian Survey, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/02634937.2025.2569476
Blanco, I., Lowndes, V., & Salazar, Y. (2022). Understanding institutional dynamics in participatory governance: How rules, practices, and narratives combine to produce stability or diverge to create conditions for change. Critical Policy Studies, 16(2), 204–223. https://doi.org/10.1080/19460171.2021.1984265
Borghetto, E., Improta, M., & Marangoni, F. (2025). Coalition politics under exceptional exogenous constraints: The Meloni government during the EU-financed economic recovery plan. South European Society and Politics, 30(1), 85–105. https://doi.org/10.1080/13608746.2024.2413852
Broers, L., & Mahmudlu, C. (2023). Civic dominion: Nation-building in post-Soviet Azerbaijan over 25 years of independence. Nationalities Papers, 51(1), 47–63. https://doi.org/10.1017/nps.2021.92
Dadashova, S. (2025). Shaping identity: Gender discourse in Azerbaijani literature of the early twentieth century. Interventions, 27(2), 287–305. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369801X.2024.2400357
Frey, B. S. (1992). Efficiency and democratic political organisation: The case for the referendum. Journal of Public Policy, 12(3), 209–222. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0143814X00005699
Gadimaliyev, A., Syzdykova, Z., Hajizada, S., Troyanskaya, M., & Sokolovski, K. (2024). The 30-year journey of constitutions in post-Soviet states after independence. Rivista di Studi sulla Sostenibilità, 14(2), 219–238. https://doi.org/10.3280/RISS2024-002013
Gəruslu, V. (2026). Azerbaijani identity in Iran: A systematic review, identity spectrum, and analysis of contemporary developments [Preprint]. SSRN. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.6022714
Gherghina, S., & Silagadze, N. (2021). Calling referendums on domestic policies: How political elites and citizens differ. Comparative European Politics, 19(5), 642–661. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41295-021-00252-7
Hale, H. E. (2025). The value of values for autocrats: Traditional morality and Putin’s 2020 term-limit contravention. Perspectives on Politics, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1537592725102132
Harper, S. F. (2025). Do citizens know about other states’ policy choices? Political Research Quarterly, 78(2), 671–687. https://doi.org/10.1177/10659129251318729
Hendriks, F., & Wagenaar, C. (2023). The deliberative referendum: An idea whose time has come? Administration & Society, 55(3), 569–590. https://doi.org/10.1177/00953997221140898
Hornig, E.-C. (2024). Patterns of party positioning in referendums in Switzerland. Political Studies Review, 22(4), 681–703. https://doi.org/10.1177/14789299231165455
Huseynova, A., Hajiyeva, A., Mazanova, O., Huseynov, S., & Mustafayev, E. (2025). The role of application of standards on economic growth and its assessment: A case study of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Journal of Ecohumanism, 4(1). https://doi.org/10.62754/joe.v4i1.6033
Ibadoghlu, G. (2025). The mechanisms and tools of authoritarian control in resource-rich states: A case study of Azerbaijan [Preprint]. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5219272
Isaacs, R. (2024). Explaining the failure of legislative agency in patronal divided executives: Deputy meaning-making and its impact on legislative quality in Kyrgyzstan, 2010–2020. Democratization, 31(2), 434–457. https://doi.org/10.1080/13510347.2023.2270423
Kamilsoy, N. (2025). Unintended transformation? Organizational responses to regulative crackdown on civil society in Azerbaijan. Southeast European and Black Sea Studies, 25(2), 229–248. https://doi.org/10.1080/14683857.2023.2243698
Khalilov, A. (2024). The concept and essence of the principle of subsidiarity in constitutional law in the Republic of Azerbaijan. Juris Europensis Scientia, 1, 21–24. https://doi.org/10.32782/chern.v1.2024.4
Khalilov, E. M. ogly. (2023). Legal status of subjects of public relations in the procedural law of the future of Azerbaijan. Futurity Economics & Law, 43–53. https://doi.org/10.57125/FEL.2023.03.25.05
Moeckli, D., Méndez, F., Labud, M., & Reimann, N. (2025). Mapping the European landscape of citizens’ initiatives. Political Studies. https://doi.org/10.1177/00323217251334530
Najafli, M. (2025). An overview of Azerbaijani media within the framework of democracy-based media theories [Preprint]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15292399
Olsen, T. V., & Tuovinen, J. (2024). Between militant democracy and citizen vigilantism: Using citizens’ assemblies to keep parties democratic. Global Constitutionalism, 13(3), 535–556. https://doi.org/10.1017/S2045381723000382
Papamichail, T., & Perić, A. (2023). Action-oriented planning methods as a tool for improving regional governance in Switzerland: Evidence from the Sisslerfeld area. Land Use Policy, 134, 106927. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2023.106927
Pisareva, D. (2024). Autocrats and peaceful resignation in the post-Soviet space: Is there a political culture explanation? East European Politics, 40(3), 495–520. https://doi.org/10.1080/21599165.2024.2321470
Qvortrup, M., & Trueblood, L. (2023). The case for supermajority requirements in referendums. International Journal of Constitutional Law, 21(1), 187–204. https://doi.org/10.1093/icon/moad013
Schwyzer, H. (1969). Rules and practices. The Philosophical Review, 78(4), 451–467. https://doi.org/10.2307/2184198
Şentürk, S. (2025). Navigating paradoxes: Youth civil society amidst shrinking and expanding spaces in Azerbaijan. Third World Quarterly, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2025.2482992
Shamilova, A. M. (2023). The importance of legal reforms in strengthening Azerbaijan’s statehood (2016–2020). Scientific Notes of Taurida National V. I. Vernadsky University, Series: Historical Sciences, 4, 98–103. https://doi.org/10.32782/2663-5984/2023/4.16
Silagadze, N., & Gherghina, S. (2018). When who and how matter: Explaining the success of referendums in Europe. Comparative European Politics, 16(5), 905–922. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41295-017-0107-9
Sirohi, R. A. (2025). India’s political shift in a Latin American mirror: The dialectics of dependency and monopoly capital. Review of International Political Economy, 32(6), 1924–1952. https://doi.org/10.1080/09692290.2025.2513377
Soto Barrientos, F., Suárez, O., & Alemparte, B. (2025). The citizen initiative in Chile’s constitution-making (2021–2023): Lessons from a participatory and digital mechanism in comparative perspective. Global Constitutionalism, 1–29. https://doi.org/10.1017/S2045381725100038
Swianiewicz, P., Łukomska, J., Jurlina Alibegović, D., & Kalcheva, D. (2025). The size of the size effect: The impact of municipal splits on the performance of local governments in Bulgaria, Croatia, and Poland. Local Government Studies, 51(4), 703–725. https://doi.org/10.1080/03003930.2024.2427237
Valsangiacomo, C. (2022). Clarifying and defining the concept of liquid democracy. Swiss Political Science Review, 28(1), 61–80. https://doi.org/10.1111/spsr.12486
Witting, I., Wagenaar, C., & Hendriks, F. (2025). Improving referendums with deliberative democracy: A systematic literature review. International Political Science Review, 46(1), 40–56. https://doi.org/10.1177/01925121231210048
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 author
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
