13:15 - 15:30
Thursday-Panel
Chair/s:
Miriam Sorace
Discussant/s:
Lucas Leemann
Meeting Room Q

Sarah Engler, Lucas Leemann
Strategy, Ideology, and Opportunity: When Political Parties Support Direct Democracy

Miriam Sorace, Diane Bolet
Vox Populi, Vox Dei: Thermostatic Support for Direct Democracy

Reut Itzkovitch-Malka, Odelia Oshri, Shaul Shenhav, Guy Mor
Voting against your constituency? Legitimacy sources of representatives with competing principals
Strategy, Ideology, and Opportunity: When Political Parties Support Direct Democracy
Sarah Engler, Lucas Leemann
University of Zürich

During every crisis of representative democracy there is a surge of demands for more direct forms of participation. Whether it is the populist movement at the end of the 19th century in the US or the 5 Star Movement in current-day Italy — discontent with the representative system increases demands for alternative institutions. But what explains the position of the main actor in the formulation of these demands? We ask why political parties call and/or support direct democracy. We provide three major motivations: strategy, ideology, and opportunity. Based on Party Manifesto Data and additional newly collected data we show how strategic motivations seem to account for most changes in party positions towards direct democracy. These results contribute to the literature on institutional origins as well as it helps to better understand whether direct democracy is endogenous with certain outcomes or not.