52% of votes cast counted as a minority in the 1979 devolution referendum for Scotland, since it wasn't a big enough majority.  52% of votes being YES is usually a NO majority in any referendum in Switzerland since by law all eligible voters not voting are counted as NO votes (obviously if 100% of eligible people vote and 52% of them vote YES the YES votes win - but who ever heard of a 100% voter turnout?).  So your statement that 52% is a majority wherever you live is clearly not true, unles you mean 52% of all eligible voters rather than 52% of votes.  The Brexit referendum's "majority" was about 37% of eligible voters, which is not a majority in a referendum in Switzerland (because it is not at least 1 vote more than 50%) and was not a majority in Britain (because it was less than 40%) when English politicians didn't want it to be but now it is a majority in Britain because English politicians do want it to be. 

Even in the USA 52% of votes in favour of a constitutional amendment used to be not an adequate majority in the USA and I haven't heard of any recent amendment to Article 5 to change that, (two thirds in each house required to send the amendment to the states; three quarters of all states have to ratify to enforce the amendment).   two thirds is rather more than 52%, and so is 75%.   Similar rules (the actual numbers vary from country to country) apply pretty-much throughout Europe except in Britain.