Evaluating the Effects of Direct Democracy on Public Policy

Abstract

This research addresses two interrelated questions about direct democracy: How does direct democracy affect public policy? And why do citizens and interest groups sometimes pursue policy change through direct democracy? We study these questions by testing for differences between urban growth boundaries (UGBs) that were enacted by city councils and by direct democracy in a large sample of California municipalities. We find that laws adopted at the ballot box are more extreme and are more difficult to amend or repeal. However, we also find that direct democracy does not result in less coherent or more fragmented policy regimes. In addition, we develop and test a model of the factors that lead political actors to pursue each strategy for policy change. Our results demonstrate that decisions to use the initiative process are largely a function of characteristics of local legislatures rather than citizen preferences for extreme policies.