Project

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The Political Effects of Referendums. A Systematic Cross-National Study

Applicant Hug Simon
Number 108179
Funding scheme Project funding (Div. I-III)
Research institution Institut für Politikwissenschaft Universität Zürich
Institution of higher education University of Zurich - ZH
Main discipline Political science
Start/End 01.09.2005 - 30.11.2008
Approved amount 186'112.00
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Keywords (3)

referendums; insitutions; institutions

Lay Summary (English)

Lead
Lay summary
The proposed project aims at studying systematically the policy effectsof referendums in a cross-national perspective. Focusing on the currentmember countries of the European Union as well as Switzerland and Norwaythe project will assess whether institutions allowing for referendumsmake voters better off or not. To do so the project will collectinformation on the following elements:- policy outcomes in a series of policy areas cross-nationally,relying on the one hand on aggregate measures and on the other oncontent analyses of laws in a set of policy areas;- preferences of voters in the selected policy areas as measured incross-national surveys (e.g., Eurobarometers, World Values Survey,European Values Survey, European Social Survey);- detailed information on the institutional provisions allowing forreferendums and the campaigns.Together these three pieces of information allow for a systematicempirical test of the theoretically derived hypothesis that the presenceof institutions allowing for referendums biases policy outcomes towardthe preferred outcome of the median voter. In addition, we will also testthe hypotheses that this policy effect depends on the exact type ofreferendums possible and that this effect is diminished by thedifficulty to launch a referendum.
Direct link to Lay Summary Last update: 21.02.2013

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