Abstract
According to advocates of direct democracy, it is important to involve citizens more directly in political decision-making processes in order to create a democratic linkage between citizens and the political system. Indeed, some studies have demonstrated that citizens who live in direct democracies have higher levels of trust in political institutions and a higher sense of political efficacy. However, not all empirical evidence confirms this relationship. In a recent article on Switzerland, it was shown that, while the availability of direct democratic rights enhances trust in political institutions, using those rights actually initiates distrust. In this paper I expand the analysis of Bauer and Fatke (2014) and test whether the different effects of availability of direct democratic rights and the frequency of their use also hold for broader measures of trust in political institutions and political efficacy. I find that, even though an increased use of direct democratic measures is associated with lower levels of confidence in authorities on the cantonal level, this relationship is no longer apparent when applying a more comprehensive measurement of trust in political institutions.
Highlights
A legitimate, stable and well-functioning polity is based on a strong relation between citizens and the state
When attempting to explain the variance in trust in political institutions, we have to focus mainly on individual characteristics. This observation already challenges the first hypothesis claiming that citizens living in cantons that provide more extensive direct democratic decision-making processes are characterized by higher levels of trust in political institutions and external efficacy
Summarizing the results, we can state that there is only limited evidence for the first hypothesis which claimed that the availability and the use of direct democratic procedures has a positive effect on political attitudes that tap support for the political system
Summary
A legitimate, stable and well-functioning polity is based on a strong relation between citizens and the state. Dyck (2009) obtained similar results in the American context, as he shows that ballot initiatives in the United States decrease trust in state governments These studies suggest that, while the availability of direct democratic procedures might have the effect that is envisioned in the literature, the fact that citizens use those opportunities might be an indication of distrust rather than trust. When looking closely at the indicators used to measure political trust in these two studies, it is clear that Bauer and Fatke (2014) as well as Dyck (2009) relied on a rather narrow measurement only capturing trust in authorities on the canton or the state level While this negative relationship between such specific measures of trust and the use of direct democratic procedures could be conceivable, it remains to be investigated whether we find the same effect when using a more encompassing measure of trust in political institutions. As is well-known, Switzerland has a unique history of a rather frequent use of direct democracy, and the country can serve as an ideal test case
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