The Impact of Direct Democracy on Society - Universität St.Gallen

– 10 –1 Introduction<strong>The</strong> topic <strong>of</strong> this dissertation, as its title suggests, is the societal impact <strong>of</strong> direct democracy,with a particular focus on Switzerland. This introductory chapter intends to shed light on thisissue by providing a brief general description <strong>of</strong> the theoretical and empirical background andthe general scientific approach the author intends to take. More issue-specific detail and indepthinformation will be provided in the following chapters, each <strong>of</strong> which is dedicated toone aspect <strong>of</strong> this research problem.'<strong>Direct</strong> democracy', or more precisely, direct legislation, implies the direct influence <strong>of</strong> thepeople on the political decision-making process whose outcomes gain shape in both laws anddecrees <strong>of</strong> the parliament. This influence means that a modern democracy, which takes placesolely through representative institutions <strong>of</strong> political decision-making, is complemented bydirect-democratic institutions. <strong>The</strong> decisive institutions <strong>of</strong> direct legislation are referenda andinitiatives, which in economic theory are thought <strong>of</strong> as influencing the political outcome infavor <strong>of</strong> the preferences <strong>of</strong> the citizenry (FELD and KIRCHGÄSSNER, 2001, BESLEY and COATE2001).'Societal impact' is a broad term that seemingly allows a huge scope <strong>of</strong> possible issues foranalysis. To investigate this impact, I will use the so-called social indicators that can, on theone hand, be objectively measured but that, on the other hand, go beyond the meremeasurement <strong>of</strong> financial or monetary aspects. Fortunately, these indicators must andtherefore will be limited to those linked to public goods whose financial base for provision isdirectly affected by institutions <strong>of</strong> direct legislation 1 . This approach narrows the field <strong>of</strong>societal impact considerably, in this case to the following indicators: subjective well-being <strong>of</strong>residents, public safety, income redistribution, and education.<strong>The</strong> approach <strong>of</strong> this dissertation is empirical and employs econometric methods <strong>of</strong> analysis.Such systematic methods have the advantage that the resultant scientific findings will be validin a general sense, i.e. they will not be driven by single observations (statistical outliers) asmight occur if a purely verbal-descriptive case study approach were chosen.1 In the case <strong>of</strong> Switzerland, these are typically those public goods provided by Swiss cantons in fields that enjoya high degree <strong>of</strong> political and financial autonomy (see also the discussion in chapter VI on education). Suchfields are especially police, education, culture, and welfare.