The Strategic Timing of Direct Democracy

Meredith, Marc

doi:10.1111/j.1468-0343.2008.00342.x

Cited by 42 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Work into the 1990s also found lower turnout increased the odds of voter approval of school taxes (Pecquet, Coats, and Yen, ). Aware of these variations, officials try to schedule referenda elections in order to influence turnout (Dunne, Reed, and Wilbanks, ; Meredith, ). On SSM, from 1998 to 2011, “organizations like the American Family Association and the Traditional Values Coalition successfully lobbied more than 40 states to enact bans on same‐sex marriage” (Lynerd, :30), and such religiously conservative groups also orchestrated many of these voter plebiscites (Donovan and Tolbert, :919; Fleischmann and Moyer, :137; Lofton and Haider‐Markel, :320–23).…”

Section: State Opinion Polls and Referenda Percentage Favoring Same‐smentioning

confidence: 99%

Voting Turnout and Referendum Outcomes on Same‐Sex Marriage, 1998–2015*

Simon

Matland

Wendell

et al. 2018

Social Science Quarterly

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Objectives This analysis of referenda voting on same‐sex marriage (SSM) from 1998 until Obergefell v. Hodges (2015) focuses on the impact of turnout, which has been neglected in previous research on gay marriage referenda. Methods We employ OLS regression analysis with clustered standard errors by state to analyze voting on SSM referenda with eight county‐level variables and seven state‐level variables. Our novel data set includes 2,610 counties across 34 different states. Results Higher referendum turnout consistently produced less support for banning SSM. Additionally, we find that the gap between the polling numbers and referendum results was caused by low turnout levels. A higher turnout would reduce that gap, so that polling would have more closely approximated public opinion. Conclusions These findings suggest that impact of voter turnout on public policy is understudied, and including turnout measures may help future researchers better understand the electoral behavior of morality policy referenda.

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Section: State Opinion Polls and Referenda Percentage Favoring Same‐smentioning

confidence: 99%

Voting Turnout and Referendum Outcomes on Same‐Sex Marriage, 1998–2015*

Simon

Matland

Wendell

et al. 2018

Social Science Quarterly

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“…Lupia (1994) A capacidade dos cidadãos para processar informação é limitada: Lutz (2007) mostra que quanto mais questões estão em pauta, pior os cidadãos estão informados sobre cada assunto; esse achado é confirmado por Selb (2008, p. 33). Meredith (2009) observa também que eleições que acontecem simultaneamente com uma consulta popular podem afetar negativamente o grau de informação dos cidadãos.…”

Section: Ii4 a Questão Da Competência Dos Cidadãosunclassified

Processos de democracia direta: sim ou não? Os argumentos clássicos à luz da teoria e da prática

Rauschenbach

2014

Rev. Sociol. Polit.

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Processos de democracia direta: sim ou não? Os argumentos clássicos à luz da teoria e da prática Rolf Rauschenbach RESUMO Regularmente surgem controvérsias sobre os processos de democracia direta, dos quais os mecanismos mais frequentes são a iniciativa popular, o plebiscito e o referendo. Por um lado, há autores que defendem a posição de que essas instituições tornam o jogo político mais lento, caro, confuso e ilegítimo; outros defendem a posição contrária e argumentam que processos de democracia direta são fundamentais para os cidadãos e a qualidade da democracia. O presente estudo analisa esse tema em torno de sete questões, baseadas em considerações teóricas e pesquisas empíricas: 1. A questão entre o minimalismo e o maximalismo democrá-tico; 2. A concorrência entre maioria e minoria; 3. A concorrência entre as instituições representativas e os processos de democracia direta; 4. A questão da competência dos cidadãos; 5. A questão dos efeitos colaterais dos processos de democracia direta; 6. A questão do tamanho do eleitorado; 7. A questão dos custos dos processos de democracia direta. As sete questões são analisadas a partir de uma revisão bibliográfica que considera tanto fontes nacionais como internacionais. O estudo mostra que os processos de democracia direta podem ser um complemento para as instituições representativas em um sistema democrático. O bom desempenho dos plebiscitos, referendos e iniciativas populares depende tanto da regulamentação destes como também do desempenho das outras instituições políticas e da situação socioeconômica de um país. O estudo permite ampliar e aprofundar o debate sobre processos de democracia direta no Brasil.

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“…By way of further illustration, an established literature outlines how elected representatives may seek to determine the timing of elections to seek electoral advantage (Meredith, 2009). What has received far less attention however is the impact of election timing on groups in civil society and the SRW (see Schlozman & Tierney, 1986).…”

Section: Contingent Factors Influencing the Collective Incentives Formentioning

confidence: 99%

Gendered political space: civil society, contingency theory, and the substantive representation of women

Chaney

2016

Journal of Civil Society

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Whilst existing civil society studies generally fail to systematically examine the way that contextual factors shape women's representation in the civil sphere, political science has predominantly focused on legislative settings. This article responds to the resultant knowledge-gap by examining the hitherto underexplored role of civil society as a political space integral to the substantive representation of women (SRW)-or, the process by which women's concerns are advanced in policy and politics. The article uses grounded theory in order propose a systematic analytical model showing how the SRW is a contingent process whereby the motives of civil society organizations are translated into action repertoires shaped by three (non-discrete) spheres: political, socioeconomic, and organizational. Its wider contribution to civil society scholarship is in highlighting how civil society is a complex, heterogeneous political space wherein SRW claims-making requires cognizance of the co-presence of contingent factors that offer immanent explanatory power.

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The Strategic Timing of Direct Democracy

Cited by 42 publications

References 21 publications

Voting Turnout and Referendum Outcomes on Same‐Sex Marriage, 1998–2015*

Voting Turnout and Referendum Outcomes on Same‐Sex Marriage, 1998–2015*

Processos de democracia direta: sim ou não? Os argumentos clássicos à luz da teoria e da prática

Gendered political space: civil society, contingency theory, and the substantive representation of women

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