Referenda and initiatives are hardly considered as democratic devices for a future Europe. Drawing on experimental evidence and empirical findings for Switzerland, the authors argue that direct democracy performs well for the provision of public goods and redistribution as it institutionalizes...

Beyond prices and regulations, a third motivation influences human behavior: intrinsic motivation. Under identifiable conditions, rational individuals replace their intrinsic by extrinsic motivation when prices and regulations are imposed from the outside ("crowding-out effect"). Conversely,...

Globalization creates a new dynamic geography of political problems, which is incompatible with the rigid boundaries of established democratic structures. We discuss this conflict within a behavioral framework which incorporates individuals' civic virtue and suggest ways to overcome it. We...

Most people except professional academic economists resist or reject the use of the price system. The four main reasons are: lack of information; undesirable distributional consequences; unfairness and reluctance to trade; and adverse effects on preferences. The reasons brought forward against the...