Suchergebnisse

Citizens are increasingly encouraged to get more directly involved in policy-making, especially at subnational levels of government. By letting the electorate decide on policy measures, direct democratic institutions add a veto player to political processes and change the decision-making game of a political system. Besides influences of interest groups and political actor's strategies, however, little is known about how institutional, political and other contextual factors bear on the use of direct democracy. This is of particular interest if ballot processes are neither initiated nor controlled by governing majorities. This contribution shows that institutions have little if no impact on the use of optional referendums and citizen-initiated petitions in Swiss cities. Rather, voting on uncontrolled ballots is largely determined by contextual variables, including foremost a commune's social complexity. In addition, the total number of other ballots, economic diversity and social satisfaction prove to be key to explaining optional referendum votes, whereas the launching of popular initiatives is explained by social complexity together with economic difficulties. Adapted from the source document.