In this paper, we study what happens when a country or region chooses - or is forced to - hold a referendum on institutional reforms. After motivating why we think that we know too little about such referendums, we continue with presenting a framework on studying referendums and institutional reforms on their most broad aspects. We will regard referendums from three perspectives: the 'technical' perspective, the 'elite' perspective and the voters' perspective. Additionally, we will present some tentative data on the occurrence of referendums on institutional reform, on their technical specifics, and on the results of these referendums.
