The biggest contemporary challenge to democratic legitimacy gravitates around the crisis of democratic representation. To tackle this problem, a growing number of established and new democracies included direct democratic instruments in their constitutions, enabling citizens to have direct influence on democratic decision-making. However, there are many different empirical manifestations of direct democracy, and their diverse consequences for representative democracy remain an understudied topic.
Let the People Rule? aims to fill this gap, analysing the multifaceted consequences of direct democracy on constitutional reforms and issues of independence, democratic accountability mechanisms, and political outcomes. Chapters apply different methodological approaches to study the consequences of direct democracy on democratic legitimacy. These range from single in-depth case studies, like the Scottish independence referendum in 2014, to cross-national comparative studies, such as the direct democratic experience within the European Union.
This is probably one of the most opportune books in years. The increasing activation of the diverse mechanisms of direct democracy in all corners of the world, sometimes with unpredictable results, forces us to wonder about the reasons behind their appeal as well as the consequences of these votes. While it is impossible to answer these large questions once and for all, this book provides us with a refreshing study (full of rich experiences) surrounding the multidimensional and sometimes contradictory world of direct democracy. For anyone interested in the potential tensions caused by the direct popular will, this book is a must. -- David Altman, Pontifical Catholic University of Chile
Saskia Pauline Ruth-Lovell is a Postdoctoral Fellow in Political Science at the NCCR Democracy at the University of Zurich and the Centre for Democracy Studies in Aarau, Switzerland. She holds a Diploma in Latin American Studies and a PhD in Political Science from the University of Cologne (Germany). Her research focusses on the quality of democracy, the crisis of representation in Latin America, and the phenomenon of clientelism and populism. Her article on ‘Clientelism and the Utility of the Left-Right Dimension in Latin America’ has recently been published in Latin American Politics and Society.
Yanina Welp is Regional Director for Latin America at the Centre for Research on Direct Democracy (Centre for Democracy Studies Aarau, University of Zurich). Her main areas of study are the mechanisms of direct and participatory democracy in Latin America and digital media and politics. She has published extensively on these topics in several academic journals and books. Her most recent contributions are Digital Technologies for Democratic Governance in Latin America (UK: Routledge, co-edited with Anita Breuer), Democracias en Movimiento (México: UNAM, co-edited with Daniel Zovatto and Alicia Lissidini) and La dosis hace el veneno. Análisis de la revocatoria de mandato en América Latina, Estados Unidos y Suiza (Quito: CNE, co-edited with Uwe Serdült).
Laurence Whitehead is a Senior Research Fellow in Politics at Nuffield College, Oxford University. He is editor of an Oxford University Press series, ‘Studies in Democratization’ and President of the Conseil Scientifique of the Institute des Ameriques, Paris, and belongs to the steering committee of the Red Eurolatinoamericana de Gobernabilidad para el Desarrollo. His lasts books are Illiberal Practices (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2016, co-edited with Jacqueline Behrend), Democratización: Teoría y Experiencia (Fondo de Cultura Económica 2011) and Caleidoscopio de la Innovación democrática en América Latina (FLACSO, México, 2011, co-edited with Yanina Welp,). Among his recent articles are ‘The Westminster System: Model or Muddle?’ in the Taiwan Journal of Democracy, May 2013; and ‘Enlivening’ the concept of Democratisation: The Biological Metaphor’ in Perspectives on Politics, July 2011.
