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The paper discusses reasons of the failure of the Slovenian government's pension reform proposal in general referendum based on statistical analysis of public opinion polls and content analysis of referendum campaign. In the time of economic crisis and in the context of general anti-reform mood, the pension reform bringing reduction of existing rights didn't have much chances to succeed from the very beginning. Opinion polls show that low public support to the government was crucial for the reform proposal failure. Support to the reform proposal was denied by voters gravitating towards the political centre, by those who don't support the government coalition, by non-partisan voters and by those with secondary and lower education. Since they represent the largest part of the electoral body, no referendum can succeed without their support. The most important arguments used in the referendum campaign were those related to (in)justness of the proposed reform and to (un)founded macroeconomic arguments for the reform. Thus, if a structural reform is put on the referendum, a high public support to the government proposing the reformand the perception that, in spite of its urgency and unpleasantness, thereform is essentially fair, are crucial conditions for its adoption. Članek s statistično analizo javnomnenjskih anket in z vsebinsko analizo referendumske kampanje ugotavlja dejavnike neuspeha vladnega predloga pokojninske reforme. Pokojninska reforma, ki po vsebini nujno pomeni krčenje nekaterih zdajšnjih pravic, je bila v obdobju gospodarske krize in v kontekstu splošne vrednotne naravnanosti proti reformam že v izhodišču težko uresničljiva. Podatki javnomnenjskega anketiranja kažejo, da je bila za neuspeh ključna nizka podpora vladi. Podporo referendumu so odrekli politično sredinsko usmerjeni volivci, tisti ki ne podpirajo vladne koalicije, strankarsko neopredeljeni in ljudje s srednješolsko in poklicno izobrazbo. Ti so največji del volilnega telesa, zato noben referendum brez njihove podpore ne more uspeti. V referendumski kampanji so bili najpomembnejši argumenti glede (ne)pravičnosti predlagane reforme in (ne)utemeljenosti makroekonomskih razlogov za reformo. Če se torej o strukturnih reformah odloča na referendumu,sta višja podpora vladi, ki reformo predlaga, in percepcija, da je reforma kljub nujnosti in neprijetnosti v osnovi pravična, ključna pogoja zanjen sprejem.