Public Opinion and Direct Democracy

Abstract

Over the past quarter-century, tensions have grown in most Western nations between the existing processes of representative democracy and calls by reformists for a more participatory style of democratic government. Voter turnout is down, as is public trust in parties and representative institutions generally. These signs point to growing public dissatisfaction with the current system of representative democracy. At the same time, popular demands for new direct forms of political involvement and decision making, especially referenda, have increased in many Western democracies. But the potential for political change goes far beyond referenda. In most Western democracies, more people today are signing petitions, joining citizen interest groups, and engaging in unconventional forms of political action. Citizens are also calling for a greater role in government advisory and administrative bodies, especially at the local level. Some even ask if democratic nations are shifting wholesale from representative democracy toward a more participatory approach. President Clinton’s former adviser Dick Morris, a highly pragmatic political analyst, recently concluded that “the fundamental paradigm that dominates our politics is the shift from representative to direct democracy. Voters want to run the show directly and are impatient with Russell J. Dalton, director of the Center for the Study of Democracy at the University of California–Irvine, is editor of Parties Without Partisans (2001) and Critical Masses (1999). Wilhelm Burklin holds the Lehrstuhl “Regierungssystem der Bundesrepublik Deutschland” at the University of Potsdam and is a member of the Management Board of the Association of German Banks (BdB); his recent books include Eliten in Deutschland: Rekrutierung und Integration (1997) and Wahlen und Wahlerverhalten (1998). Andrew Drummond is a Democracy Fellow in the Center for the Study of Democracy and a doctoral candidate in political science at UC-Irvine.