Broadening democracy by lowering the voting age is on the political agenda in many democratic societies. Previous … democracy proxied by the strength of direct democratic institutions and (ii) the size of the new electorate. Our results provide … democracy and affects citizens' willingness to lower the voting age. Moreover, we find systematic price reactions of present …

We analyze the factors that influence the support for environmental policy proposals. Swiss referendum data show that … referendum. Also, there are more pro-environmental votes in cantons with higher population density. On the other hand, yes …-votes do not seem to depend on whether a proposal involves a tax or not. -- direct democracy ; environmental policy ; public …

This article challenges recent findings that democracy has sizable effects on economic growth. As extensive political … paper focuses on this endogeneity concern. Using a worldwide survey of 165 country-specific democracy experts conducted for … these more exogenous democratizations strongly indicates that democracy does not cause growth. Consequently, the common …

Using a natural voting experiment in Switzerland that encompasses a 160-year period (1848-2009), we investigate whether … one referendum was held. We also show that when constituents face a higher level of complexity, they listen to parliament …

bedauerliche Entwicklung des Bezugs der Bürgerinnen und Bürger zur Schweizer Demokratie sollte unbedingt im Auge behalten werden. …

. We examine how citizens evaluate and react to the enfranchisement of non-citizens in Switzerland. This paper combines a …' attitudes toward non-citizens and their perception of democracy. We find evidence that citizens become more skeptical toward … additional migration, yet show a tendency to reduce ethnocentric attitudes toward non-citizens residing in Switzerland and are …