Can Direct Democracy Save Democracy? A Panel Study on the Effect of Participation in A Referendum on Decision-Making Process Preferences and Decision Acceptance

Contemporary democracies are facing fierce criticism on how its political institutions and actors fulfil their role (Dalton & Welzel 2014). Democratic innovations, that aim to align institutional structures with the demands of contemporary citizens, are implemented at an ever-increasing degree. Especially increased citizen involvement in the decision-making process has been frequently put forth as a panacea to address democratic dissatisfaction. Despite the strong theoretical expectations, the empirical evidence is mixed and mainly based on cross-sectional data and cases with extensive experience with direct democracy (e.g. Switzerland, US). Several questions remain open for debate. For instance, do citizens want to be involved? Does involvement affect their decision-making process preferences? Recently, scholars have argued that individual citizens would become more supportive of citizen involvement after gaining firsthand experience with the procedure (Christensen, Himmelroos, & Grönlund, forthcoming; Neblo et al., 2010). Using a Belgian panel study (N=1,113), we study the effect of a local referendum on levels of democratic satisfaction, decision acceptance and process preferences. In contrast to Switzerland and the US, there is little experience with direct democracy in Belgium. The three-wave panel includes inhabitants of a neighborhood that held a referendum and a control group (i.e. inhabitants of a comparable neighborhood without referendum).