Referendums and democracy: taking stock and looking ahead

This Workshop gives theoretical and empirical researchers a unique opportunity to connect and help develop a better understanding of why, when, and how, popular vote processes support or undermine democracy. The Workshop aims to go beyond acknowledged limitations in existing studies, such as: - the reference to 'direct democracy' as the relevant regulative ideal to assess popular vote processes. Following, e.g., Bowler and Donovan (2021: 12) and el-Wakil and McKay (2020), we need other normative standards more attuned to the actual practice of referendums and initiatives to inform institutional design and motivate empirical research; - the scarcity of comparisons of political systems with and without referendums and initiative, which are crucial to determine whether and when popular vote processes should be available and how they should interact with electoral institutions (majoritarian or representative, compulsory voting, etc.) (Matsusaka, 2008; Altman, 2008; Vatter & Bernauer, 2009; Hug 2009; Kübler, 2024); - the lack of systematic study of best (and worst) practices, whose necessity is emphasised as popular vote processes are increasingly used (Altman, 2011; Qvortrup, 2024), including in non-democratic contexts (Brüggemann et al., 2023; Penadés & Velasco, 2024), but also as repression by institutional tweaks or state-of-emergency regulations in other places expands; - the need to specify whether and how voters form opinions and should be enabled to participate in mass votes considering the profound changes in the quality of the public space caused by changing media environments, explicit attempts at manipulation, and affective polarisation (Van Aelst et al., 2017).

Altman, D. (2008). Collegiate executives and direct democracy in Switzerland and Uruguay: similar institutions, opposite political goals, distinct results. Swiss Political Science Review, 14(3), 483-520. Altman, D. (2011). Direct demcoracy worldwide. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Bowler, S., & Donovan, T. (2021). Enduring Questions and Unsatisfactory Answers About Direct Democracy Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics. Brüggemann, S., Gut, R., Serdült, U., & Wüthrich, J. (2023). The World of Referendums. 2023 edition (Vol. 24). Aarau: Zentrum für Demokraite Aarau. el-Wakil, A., & McKay, S. (2020). Disentangling referendums and direct democracy: A defence of the systemic approach to popular vote processes. Representation, 56(4), 449-466. Elstub, S., & Escobar, O. (2019). Defining and typologising democratic innovations. In S. Elstub & O. Escobar (Eds.), Handbook of democratic innovation and governance (pp. 11-31). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar. Kübler, D. (2024). Citizen participation through direct legislation: a road to success? A perspective from Switzerland. Global Public Policy and Governance, 4(2), 184-196. Matsusaka, J. G. (2008). For the many or the few: The initiative, public policy, and American democracy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Penadés, A., & Velasco, S. (2024). The effect of referendums on autocratic survival: Running alone and not finishing second. Government and Opposition, 59(2), 405-424. Qvortrup, M. (Ed.) (2024). Referendums across the world (3 ed.). Houndsmills: Palgrave MacMillan. Van Aelst, P., Strömbäck, J., Aalberg, T., Esser, F., De Vreese, C., Matthes, J., .et al. (2017). Political communication in a high-choice media environment: A challenge for democracy? Annals of the international communication association, 41(1), 3-27. Vatter, A., & Bernauer, J. (2009). The missing dimension of democracy. European Union Politics, 10(3), 335-359.

1: What are the democratic credentials of (various kinds of) popular vote processes?
2: How do referendums interact with other institutions – e.g., proportional vs. majoritarian electoral systems?
3: What are the most (or least) promising designs of popular vote processes – e.g., for voters’ information provision?
4: When does direct democracy improve social and political cohesion or deepen tension and conflict?
5: To what extent does the practice and ethics of voting differ in elections and in popular votes?

Title	Details
'Deliberative referendums': Locating citizens at the heart of constitutional design and reform	View Paper Details
Referendums in Non-Democracies	View Paper Details
Local Referendum Practice in the Netherlands and Flanders: Developments, Innovations, and Lessons	View Paper Details
Direct Votes, Deepening Divides? Negative Campaigning and Political Affective Polarization in the 2023 Australian Voice Referendum	View Paper Details
Structured Loss in Direct Democracy: How Identity-Based Defeats Shape Trust and Democratic Support	View Paper Details
Designing (Out) Democracy: Legal design choices of citizen-initiated popular vote processes and how they affect their use	View Paper Details
Effects of personalised content on affective polarisation in referendum campaigns - what donated data from Instagram can tell us	View Paper Details
Referendums of Morality: crocodiles, hens, and the punctuated (de)politicisation of the private sphere	View Paper Details
Devil in the detail: Designing referendum processes to support informed voter decision making	View Paper Details
Breaking Bad: Why Policies Approved in National Level Referendums are not Implemented	View Paper Details
Gendered Morality? A study of female-male differences in moral beliefs and their consequences for political choices	View Paper Details
Constitutional referendums and integrity in Chile	View Paper Details
One Step Forward, Two Steps Back: Why Political Parties (Do Not) Support Referendums	View Paper Details
Revisiting Public Opinion on Referendums	View Paper Details
Let the people rule? How deliberative and direct democracy polarize and depolarize the electorate	View Paper Details
Explaining the vote in referendums: The role of deliberation and symbolic attitudes	View Paper Details
Effective Couplings of Mini-Publics and Popular Votes: Explaining Ballot Support and Policy Adoption	View Paper Details
A Democratic Innovation Against Another? Referendum and Sortition in Belgian Parliamentary Debates	View Paper Details
What Do We Do When We Vote? A Choice-Based Account of Democratic Participation	View Paper Details
Simplifying Partisan Political Opinions in Referenda: Voting Aids for Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities	View Paper Details
Direct democratic majority rule as a permanent solution to the problem of persistent minorities	View Paper Details