Main Findings and Contributions

Direct Democracy Worldwide is a study of direct democracy, which is understood as a set of institutions that allow citizens to express their preferences at the ballot box through universal and secret suffrage about government issues other than who will represent them in the government. This book filled a lacuna in our understanding of MDDs in the contemporary world and the relationship between direct and representative democracy. It introduced a key distinction between forms of direct democracy, demonstrating that direct democracy is Janus-faced: Some mechanisms of direct democracy are forward looking, democratizing politics, whereas others are backward facing, enhancing the power of politicians who deliberately use them. Thus, although the practice of direct democracy sometimes gives power to the people, at other times it gives people to the powerful.

This book shows how the specific MDDs that are employed shape the relationship between direct and representative democracy. Eschewing the common view of direct democracy and representative democracy as mutually exclusive models that focuses on the false choice between one model or the other, Direct Democracy Worldwide pays special attention to how practices of direct and representative democracy interact under different institutional conditions and uncovers the specific conditions under which they can coexist in a mutually reinforcing manner.