Direct democracy has a relatively weak tradition in Hungary. Although the socialist constitution (Law No. XX of 1949, modified several times, especially in 1972) in force in 1989 provided laconically of the possibility of a „national referendum” (Art. 30 para 1 point d) there was no law to implement the constitutional provision, and still less the political will to organize a referendum in the constitutional system as it existed in 1988. In 1988 however, as a part of the gradual erosion of the legitimacy of the existing socialist system, demands were voiced advocating a referendum on various topics, especially on the still sharply debated question of the joint (then) Czechoslovakian–Hungarian joint project to build a water power plant in the Danube bend.