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Vote as you Think: Determinants of Consistent Decision Making in Direct Democracy
Author(s) -
Lanz Simon,
Nai Alessandro
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
swiss political science review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.632
H-Index - 30
eISSN - 1662-6370
pISSN - 1424-7755
DOI - 10.1111/spsr.12126
Subject(s) - argument (complex analysis) , voting , situational ethics , democracy , politics , direct democracy , multilevel model , social psychology , survey data collection , work (physics) , cognition , psychology , political science , positive economics , economics , computer science , law , mechanical engineering , biochemistry , chemistry , statistics , mathematics , machine learning , neuroscience , engineering
This study investigates the conditions under which Swiss citizens take consistent decisions, that is, decisions that reflect their argument‐based opinions, during direct‐democratic ballots. In line with recent work on cognitive political behavior, we expect the drivers of consistent voting to be found at the individual and contextual level. At the individual level, we argue that political knowledge positively affects consistent decisions. At the contextual level, we anticipate a positive effect for campaign intensity, complexity and negativism. We estimate hierarchical logistic models based on VOX survey data (1999‐2005) and original data that captures the nature of political campaigns. Our results support our expectations for the situational level and (partially) for the individual factors.