Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP2857
Authors: Timothy Besley; Stephen Coate
Abstract: The role of citizens' intitiatives figures prominantly in contemporary debates on constitutional change. A basic question is why are initiatives necessary in a representative democracy where candidates must already compete for the right to control policy? This Paper offers one answer to this question. In a representative democracy, the bundling of issues, together with the fact that citizens have only one vote, means that policy outcomes on specific issues may diverge far from what the majority of citizens want. In such circumstances, allowing citizens to put legislation directly on the ballot permits the 'unbundling' of these issues, which forces a closer relationship between policy outcomes and popular preferences. To the extent that it is condsidered socially undesirable for outcomes on specific issues to stray too far from what the majority wants, this creates a role for citizens initiatives.
Keywords: citizens initiatives; direct democracy
JEL Codes: D70; H10
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| bundling of issues (D72) | nonmajoritarian outcomes (D72) |
| citizens initiatives (D72) | nonmajoritarian outcomes (D72) |
| citizens initiatives (D72) | policy outcomes (D78) |
| citizens initiatives (D72) | candidate selection (D79) |
| threat of initiative (D72) | candidate alignment with majority preferences (D79) |
| citizens initiatives (D72) | party incentives (D72) |