Does direct democracy increase communicative responsiveness? A field experiment with Swiss politicians:

摘要

Many argue that direct democracy improves the quality of democracy. In particular, many scholars claim that it increases the representation of the publica??s preferences by fostering communicative responsiveness between politicians and citizens. While studies have come to mixed conclusions about the effect of direct democracy on policy outcomes, little is known about how direct democratic processes affect politiciansa?? responsiveness. Using a field experiment, this study examines whether direct democracy increases the responsiveness of Swiss state legislators to citizen-initiated contacts on policy concerns. Contrary to popular belief, our results show that direct democracy does not enhance politiciansa?? responsiveness to policy requests.