| 释义 |
plebiscite, -it
(ˈplɛbɪs(a)ɪt, ‖ plebisit)
Also (6 Sc. plebescit), 9 ‖ plébiscite.
[a. F. plébiscite (14th c. in Littré in sense 1), ad. L. plēbiscītum.]
1. Rom. Hist. = plebiscitum 1.
1533Bellenden Livy iii. xxiii. (S.T.S.) II. 41 We sufferit..þe plebescitis to be vsit in maner of lawis abone þe faderis. 1602W. Fulbecke Pandectes 31 By plebiscite or popular determination to be quitted and freed. 1658Phillips, Plebiscite (lat.), a decree, statute, or law, made by the common people. 1875Poste Gaius i. §3 A statute is a command and ordinance of the people: a plebiscite is a command and ordinance of the commonalty. 1880Muirhead Gaius i. §3 A lex is a law enacted and established by the whole body of the people; a plebiscit, one enacted and established by its plebeian members.
†b. transf. A popular decree or maxim. Obs.
1637J. Pocklington Altare Chr. 148 Principles so full of spawne..as this feracious and pregnant Plebiscite, that what is by law, custom, prescription..appointed and settled, shall not be allowed, or practised.
2. In modern politics, A direct vote of the whole of the electors of a state to decide a question of public importance, e.g. a proposed change in the constitution, or the ratification or rejection of a measure approved by the legislature (see referendum); also by extension, a public expression, with or without binding force, of the wishes or opinion of a community.
In French, applied by Voltaire, 1776, to such a vote as used in some of the Swiss cantons (Littré); in the First French Republic used in connexion with the coup d'état of 18th Brumaire (9 Nov. 1799) and other acts, including that by which the consulate and imperial power were conferred on Napoleon I; in 1852 applied to the ratification of the coup d'état of Dec. 1851, and conferring of the imperial crown upon Napoleon III. It was in connexion with the last of these that the word became familiar in English.
1860Times 7 Mar. 9/6 The decree summoning Tuscany to give on the 11th and 12th inst. a plebiscite, by universal suffrage, and by ballot, for the annexation, or for a separate kingdom. 1863Kinglake Crimea I. xiv. 211 He [Louis Napoleon] knew how to strangle a nation in the night-time with a thing he called a ‘Plebiscite’. 1870Daily News 23 Apr., It is expected that the proclamation of the Emperor respecting the plebiscite will be issued on Saturday. 1884H. Spencer Man versus State 14 If people by a plébiscite elect a man despot over them, do they remain free because the despotism was of their own making?
Hence plebiˈscitic a. (rare), of, pertaining to, or established by a plebiscite.
1892Contemp. Rev. Aug. 153 It [monarchy] had recently been humbled on the field by a plebiscitic adventurer. |