Some countries provide for the need for a constitutional amendment to be approved by popular referendum. The aim is to strengthen the legitimacy of the constitutional amendment. In the Commission’s view, for constitutional reform, “it is equally legitimate either to include or not include a popular referendum as part of the procedure”. However, “recourse to a referendum should not be used by the executive in order to circumvent parliamentary amendment procedures. The danger and potential temptation is that while constitutional amendment in parliament in most countries requires a qualified majority, it is usually enough with simple majority in a referendum. Thus, for a government lacking the necessary qualified majority in parliament, it might be tempting instead to put the issue directly to the electorate. On several occasions the Venice Commission has emphasized the danger that this may have the effect of circumventing the correct constitutional amendment procedures. It has insisted on the fact that it is expedient in a democratic system upholding the separation of powers that the legislature should always retain power to review the executive’s legislative output and to decide on the extent of its powers in that respect”.