Direct Democracy

Existing literature treats popular support for liberal democratic values as a key check on illiberal actors, yet recent work shows declared democratic support can coexist with tolerance for backsliding. The argument advanced here is that social norms create incentives to publicly oppose illiberal actors without sincerely holding those views. These actors are labeled "staged democrats": people who cosmetically endorse democratic norms but do not genuinely punish illiberal politics. Because staged democrats signal rather than sincerely oppose illiberalism, they are not a stable safeguard—information shocks can reveal their insincerity and change political outcomes.

Ballot initiative campaigns often rely heavily on opposition arguments to sway voters against a measure, but why?

Does direct democracy lead to smaller government budgets? Using regression discontinuity design on Spanish municipalities where voter choice dictated governance style, this paper finds that the switch to direct democracy reduces public spending by about 8%. However, revenues decline similarly resulting in no change to budget deficits. These findings suggest voters use direct democracy to control special-interest influence.

Does ordinary citizenry really lack policy competence? New research using Swiss ballot data suggests otherwise. This study introduces a novel voter justification measure to assess direct democracy competence across multiple levels.

This article explores how direct democracy promotes women's political participation. It proposes that direct democratic mechanisms actively encourage female involvement by signaling system openness to diverse perspectives (including women), confirming their political competency, and highlighting their stake in policy decisions affecting them directly. Research Design: Sweden serves as a compelling case study following the introduction of universal suffrage in 1920. The implementation of direct democracy at municipal level was determined by population thresholds set after this constitutional change. Analysis & Findings: Using data from historical records and leveraging regression analysis, we demonstrate that municipalities with some form of direct democracy implemented post-1920 exhibited a significantly smaller gender gap in electoral turnout compared to those relying solely on representative institutions, even when controlling for municipality size and pre-reform characteristics. Implication: These findings suggest that the mere presence of direct democratic tools can change perceptions about women's roles in politics, accelerating their inclusion rather than just providing access.

This paper examines direct democracy institutions to reveal their disparate effects on citizens' political support.

Does direct democracy strengthen popular control over policies? A key challenge in measuring policy representation is capturing state-level public opinion through static methods. However, issue-specific attitudes change significantly over time—a limitation not addressed by traditional approaches.

This study examines how initiatives affect state public policy congruence.