"Plebiscite" is a word in LAW AND LEGAL, ENGLISH

In modern constltutlonal law, the name "plebiscite" has been given to a vote of the entire people, (that ls, the aggregate of the enfranchised Indlvlduals composlng a state or nation.) expressing thelr cholce for or against a proposed law or en-actment, submitted to them, and whlch, lf adopted, wlll work a radical change ln the constltntlon. or whlch Is beyond the powers of the regular leglslatlve body. The proceeding ls extraordinary, and is generally revolutionary ln lts character; an example of which may be seen ln the plebiscites submitted to the French .people by Louis Napoleon, whereby the Second Empire wns es-tablished. But the -principle of the plebiscite has been incorporated ln the modern Swlss constltutlon, (under the name of “referendum,") by whlch a revision of the con-stltutlon must be undertaken when demand-ed by the vote of fifty thousand Swiss citl-zens. Maine, Popular Govt 40, 96

A vote by universal male suffrage; especially, in
France, a popular vote, as first sanctioned by the National
Constitution of 1791.