9
Austin Ranney point to a significant increase in the use of direct democracy, although
they have to admit that these trends are limited to a few cases (Butler and Ranney
1994). According to Susan Scarrow, the public support for direct democracy becomes
more visible when measured along the lines of actual institutional change. On the
basis of this criterion, she observes a comprehensive cross-national trend towards the
implementation of means of direct democracy (Scarrow 2001). These empirical
indicators suggest that citizens in many countries value the process of direct
democracy and that therefore they might participate in it in greater numbers.
However, specific forms of implementing direct democracy might also increase the
individual benefits attached to this tool of participatory democracy.
The weight of individual votes in the process of direct decision making is by no
means given or static. It is affected by the particular design of direct democracy in a
threefold way. First, the comprehensive implementation of all available measures of
direct decision making increases the weight of strong preferences by opening up
opportunities to shape the governmental agenda. The citizens’ initiative as the most
far reaching measure of direct democracy enables citizens to shape both the issues and
the alternatives on the governmental agenda. It gives those with intense preferences
on an issue the opportunity to promote social issues and to bring them up to a vote if
enough public support can be mobilized. This is not an option if the implementation
of direct democracy restricts itself to the referendum process. In a referendum, the
initiative lies with political elites not with ordinary citizens. They may pursue this
initiative voluntarily or as a result of legal requirements. However, in any of these
versions of the referendum, political elites will be able to control the range of
alternatives that are up for decision. Ordinary citizens are restricted to cast their vote
on given alternatives in the context of given issues. In this case, each vote carries an
equal weight.
3
The second institutional factor that affects the weight of individual votes in a process
of direct decision making is related to the number of decisions. A large number of
policy positions taken by popular vote will most likely have a reverse effect on
turnout per single ballot vote. Turnout should decrease with a large number of direct
votes because citizens will not be ready to bear the costs of constantly taking a trip to
the voting booth. If we assume that turnout in a referendum has to be perceived as a
Convention