Does Satisfaction with Democracy Really Increase Happiness? Direct Democracy and Individual Satisfaction in Switzerland

Stadelmann‐Steffen, Isabelle; Vatter, Adrian

doi:10.1007/s11109-011-9164-y

Cited by 87 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…To measure the costs of direct democracy usage, we rely on a widely used index of direct democratic rights (Frey and Stutzer, 2000;Freitag and Vatter, 2006;Stadelmann-Steffen and Vatter, 2011;StadelmannSteffen and Freitag, 2011). The index measures how difficult it is to use direct democracy, for example, in terms of the time granted to collect signatures and the number of signatures required (Stutzer, 1999;Frey and Stutzer, 2000).…”

Section: Empirical Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

The Democratic Effect of Direct Democracy

Leemann

Wasserfallen

2016

Am Polit Sci Rev

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A key requirement of democratic governance is that policy outcomes and the majority preference of the electorate are congruent. Many studies argue that the more direct democratic a system is, the more often voters get what they want, but the empirical evidence is mixed. This analysis explores the democratic effect of initiatives and referendums theoretically and empirically. The prediction of the formal model is that "bad" representation (i.e., a large preference deviation between the electorate and the political elite) is good for the democratic effect of direct democracy. An empirical investigation of original voter and elite survey data, analyzed with multilevel modeling and post-stratification, supports this argument. Building on the literature, the findings of the analysis suggest that the extent to which direct democratic institutions are conducive for policy congruence-and may thus be advisable as democratic correctives to representative systems-depends on the political conflict structure.

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Section: Empirical Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

The Democratic Effect of Direct Democracy

Leemann

Wasserfallen

2016

Am Polit Sci Rev

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“…The question of how to create and foster social capital has amassed some answers regarding community social capital. In direct democracies, like Switzerland for example, positive effects related to using direct democratic rights are acknowledged both at the individual and community levels (Stadelmann-Steffen & Vatter, 2012). In the United Kingdom, "bridge-building activities intended to increase interpersonal contacts between diverse ethnic, faith and nationality groups have the goal to increase community and social cohesion" (Harris & Young, 2009, p. 517).…”

Section: Policy Implications: How To Create and Foster Oscmentioning

confidence: 99%

Organizational Social Capital and Performance Information Use: Analyzing the Link and Its Implications for Public Management

Tantardini¹

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The use of performance information is the backbone of performance management.Performance information use refers to the willingness of public managers or other relevant stakeholders to incorporate quantitative or qualitative data in their decisionmaking. Both routine and nonroutine performance information is considered essential in managers' decision making. Understanding the organizational factors that motivate public managers to use performance information is an important topic in the literature and practice of performance management.Although the number of studies on information use is growing, little is known about the impact of Organizational Social Capital (OSC). OSC is composed of the subdimensions of social interaction, trust, and shared goals. The main argument of this study is that OSC fosters performance information use in public administrations. It is iv expected that departments with high levels of organizational social capital are more likely to use both routine and nonroutine performance information.To test the hypothesized effect, department heads, middle managers, and other individuals with a supervisory role from 513 Florida County Government departments were surveyed. Furthermore, interviews, focus groups, and analysis of secondary data were performed to provide the context and the narrative surrounding the hypothesized effect. Analysis of the survey data reveals evidence in support of the hypothesized effects. Furthermore, the comparative case study analysis shows the existence of substantial differences in the history, background, organizational culture, and management between the two counties. The main findings show how reorganization processes as well as a lack of leadership may have detrimental effects to organizational social capital.Organizational social capital could be considered a relevant predictor of performance information use and thus deserves further attention from both researchers and practitioners. v The origins of this movement, which has been fully embraced by politicians around the world, could be traced back in the influence from "large, high performing organizations in the private sector" (Kamensky, 1996, p. 248). Classical economic theory, public choice theory, principal-agent theory, transaction cost, liberation management, market-driven management are some of the theories that constitute the backbone of NPM (Kamensky, 1996, Terry, 1998. Among the core components that characterize this movement (Caiden, 1994;Kamensky, 1996, Kettl, 2005Terry, 1998), productivity and accountability have received the most attention-both in theory and in practice of NPM.According to Kamensky (1996), NPM advances progress toward achieving better performing public administrations. He stated that NPM "is not just a series of recommendations, but an evolving movement whose vision and philosophy is trying to adapt democratic governance to new public expectations" (p. 253). Not all scholars have been keen to accept and embrace what NPM has offered to the public sector. 2According to Terry (1998), ...

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“…the feeling of having a say in political decision-making which are all known to influence perceptions of government responsiveness (Anderson, 2010), evaluations of service quality , as well as satisfaction with democracy (Stadelmann-Steffen & Vatter, 2012). At the level of the municipality, contextual variables to be controlled for encompass, first of all, the size of the municipality:…”

Section: Independent Variables and Controlsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Citizenship in the fragmented metropolis: An individual-level analysis from Switzerland

Kübler

2017

Journal of Urban Affairs

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Based on a survey of 2010 citizens in four large metropolitan areas in Switzerland, the analysis presented in this article shows that spatial mobility of citizens across municipal borders leads to an up-scaling of their territorial identities at the level of the city-region. On the one hand, this results in a favourable attitude towards encompassing institutions at the city-regional scale. On the other hand, given the high degree of institutional fragmentation prevailing in Swiss city regions, strong city-regional orientations lead to a delegitimisation of the local political system. Without adequate reforms of the territorial institutional framework the ongoing growth and functional integration of city-regional spaces will lead to political alienation and increasingly challenge the democratic legitimacy of the local state in Switzerland. More generally, the article shows that the long-running debate on metropolitan governance should focus, more thoroughly than in the past, on issues of citizenship and democratic legitimacy. Abstract: Based on a survey of 2010 citizens in four large metropolitan areas in Switzerland, the analysis presented in this article shows that spatial mobility of citizens across municipal borders leads to an up-scaling of their territorial identities at the level of the city-region. On the one hand, this results in a favourable attitude towards encompassing institutions at the city-regional scale. On the other hand, given the high degree of institutional fragmentation prevailing in Swiss city regions, strong city-regional orientations lead to a delegitimisation of the local political system. Without adequate reforms of the territorial institutional framework the ongoing growth and functional integration of city-regional spaces will lead to political alienation and increasingly challenge the democratic legitimacy of the local state in Switzerland. More generally, the article shows that the long-running debate on metropolitan governance should focus, more thoroughly than in the past, on issues of citizenship and democratic legitimacy.

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Does Satisfaction with Democracy Really Increase Happiness? Direct Democracy and Individual Satisfaction in Switzerland

Cited by 87 publications

References 43 publications

The Democratic Effect of Direct Democracy

The Democratic Effect of Direct Democracy

Organizational Social Capital and Performance Information Use: Analyzing the Link and Its Implications for Public Management

Citizenship in the fragmented metropolis: An individual-level analysis from Switzerland

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