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THE STRATEGIC TIMING OF DIRECT DEMOCRACY
Author(s) -
MEREDITH MARC
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
economics and politics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1468-0343
pISSN - 0954-1985
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-0343.2008.00342.x
Subject(s) - referendum , turnout , direct democracy , democracy , political science , outcome (game theory) , public administration , voting , political economy , economics , politics , microeconomics , law
This paper focuses on the strategic timing of elections by agenda‐setters in direct democracy settings. Because concurrent elections affect turnout, scheduling referenda for different elections will produce different median voters. I hypothesize that agenda‐setters with power over the timing of a referendum will schedule the referendum in conjunction with the other set of races that produce a policy closest to their preferred outcome. Consistent with the theory, I show that Wisconsin school boards' use of special elections for school referenda are related to differences in the revealed preferences of voters in low‐ and high‐turnout elections.