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

– 28 –Table 1 provides information on how the index changed between 1996 (as found in STUTZER,1999) and 2003 (based on own calculations). A more detailed discussion on such change isprovided in section 7 <strong>of</strong> this chapter. It must also be noted that not all institutional changesautomatically cause a change in the index <strong>of</strong> direct democracy: index points are awardedbased on ranges <strong>of</strong> signature requirements or financial thresholds so that relatively smallalterations do not necessarily translate into a change in category. In addition, the readershould keep in mind that each institution influences the composite index by only 25%: e.g. thechange in signature requirement in Basel-Land (BL) for the optional statutory referendumcaused a total change <strong>of</strong> just about 0.21 index points. At this point, I would like to emphasizethat because the index is constructed on a yearly basis, revisions <strong>of</strong> the cantonal constitutionbecoming effective after April 1st are always counted as changes in the index <strong>of</strong> thesubsequent year. <strong>The</strong>refore, if a cantonal electorate approves a revision in September 1997,becoming effective the same date, it is the index value <strong>of</strong> the subsequent year 1998 that willbe adapted accordingly. Moreover, it is also possible that several, contrasting institutionalchanges – either occurring simultaneously or subsequent to each other – might cause acompensating impact on the index <strong>of</strong> direct democracy. Finally, it should be noted thatchanges in the index can occur even if the institutional requirements do not change: suchchanges happen because some evaluations use per capita values, meaning that fluctuations inpopulation <strong>of</strong>ten lead to a change in category.3 <strong>The</strong> Initiative3.1 Constitutional InitiativeCantonZürich(30 Mar 2004)Bern(21 Oct 2003)Table 2: <strong>The</strong> Constitutional Initiative between 1997 and 2003Signature Articles in cant.Requirement constitutionEffective since10,000 art. 29, 3 num.1 11 June 1969(1 June 1969)30,000 (TR)15,000 (PR)art. 58, 1 lit. aart. 58, 2Time-limit forcollection6 monthsart. 13, 2Initiativgesetz(art. 126 GPR)1 Jan 1995 6 monthssee also T/S 1999,p. 190