not if only occasional single questions are brought to a referendum. Then, the relation between direct democracy and the … the functioning of direct democracy. As a political system it only makes sense if there exists a continuous process and … points that should be observed to safeguard the well-functioning of direct democracy. …

To assess the likely effects of population ageing on the outcomes of direct democracy, we analyze the effect of age on … study of the Stuttgart 21 referendum on one of the largest infrastructure projects in Germany. The evi-dence suggests that …

discussion of the pros and cons of direct democracy, the ability of direct democracy to help creating a European demos is … discussed. Consequently, we propose a mandatory (required and binding) referendum on total and partial revisions of the European … referendum for financially important projects. …

democracy has a constraining, but modest effect on spending. Our estimates suggest that a mandatory budget referendum reduces …Using a new dataset of Swiss cantons from 1890 to 2000, we estimate the causal effect of direct democracy on government … spending by 2.2 percent. We find no evidence that direct democracy at the canton level results in higher local spending or a …

In this paper, I analyze the voting outcomes of two very similar Swiss referendum ballots concerning the federal …

the main focus is on comparison between different forms of representative democracy, the influence of direct democracy on … representative democracies. In this paper, we find that institutions of direct democracy are associated with lower public spending …

effects of direct democracy. Town meetings (popular assemblies) replace local councils in small German municipalities below a … specific population threshold. Difference-in-differences, RD and event study estimates consistently show that direct democracy …% under direct democracy. We do not find that business tax rates change. Direct democracy allows citizens to design tax …