Gun Behind the Door? Ballot Initiatives, State Policies and Public Opinion

Lascher, Edward L.; Hagen, Michael G.; Rochlin, Steven A.

doi:10.2307/2960443

Cited by 154 publications

(159 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Results are decidedly mixed. For example, Matsusaka (2005) concludes that the initiative process leads to policies more in line with the public's desires whereas Monogan et al (2009) conclude that it does not, consistent with the original findings of Lascher et al (1996). Do ballot initiatives harm minority interests?…”

Section: Where Does This Research Fit With the Literature On Ballot Isupporting

confidence: 57%

“…They advocated using a continuous variable for frequency of initiative use. Others (e.g., Lascher et al 1996) have used a dichotomous measure to capture the threat of initiatives. Rather than attempting to settle this question a priori, we ran three models, one with a dichotomous measure, one with a continuous variable, and one with both.…”

Section: Where Does This Research Fit With the Literature On Ballot Imentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Beginning with Lascher et al (1996), another line of inquiry has focused on whether the presence of ballot measures leads to policies that correspond more closely with citizens' policy preferences or ideology. Results are decidedly mixed.…”

Section: Where Does This Research Fit With the Literature On Ballot Imentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Impact of Direct Democracy on Governance: A Replication and Extension

T.¹,

Lascher²

2013

California Journal of Politics and Policy

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Does the state ballot initiative process affect American states' ability to meet widely accepted standards of "good governance?" This question is relevant in many places, but especially in California which makes the heaviest use of the popular initiative. While much recent non-academic work suggests the process has ill effects in the Golden State and elsewhere, there has been little systematic scholarly investigation of this topic; the notable exception is R.J. Dalton's work in 2008. Building on, updating, and extending his study, we examine whether the presence and extent of ballot initiative use affects Government Performance Project grades. Controlling for many other variables, we find a generally negative relationship between initiative use and such grades. This has worrisome implications for governance.

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Section: Where Does This Research Fit With the Literature On Ballot Isupporting

confidence: 57%

Section: Where Does This Research Fit With the Literature On Ballot Imentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Impact of Direct Democracy on Governance: A Replication and Extension

T.¹,

Lascher²

2013

California Journal of Politics and Policy

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“…Some disagree, given the costs of the initiative process; the role that interest groups play in writing, qualifying, and financing ballot measures; and the limited understanding that voters have of policy questions on which they are asked to vote (Lascher, Hagen, and Rochlin 1996). Some studies find evidence supporting the initiative effect, at least in some policy areas (Arceneaux 2002;Gerber 1996Gerber , 1999Matsusaka 2010;Phillips 2008), whereas others do not find an effect (Monogan, Gray, and Lowery 2009;Lascher, Hagen, and Rochlin 1996;Lax and Phillips 2009b).…”

Section: Explaining Variation In Responsiveness and Congruencementioning

confidence: 95%

“…Some studies find evidence supporting the initiative effect, at least in some policy areas (Arceneaux 2002;Gerber 1996Gerber , 1999Matsusaka 2010;Phillips 2008), whereas others do not find an effect (Monogan, Gray, and Lowery 2009;Lascher, Hagen, and Rochlin 1996;Lax and Phillips 2009b). Our policy-specific opinion measures might help resolve this thorny debate.…”

Section: Explaining Variation In Responsiveness and Congruencementioning

confidence: 99%

The Democratic Deficit in the States

Lax

Phillips

2011

American J Political Sci

393

454

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One might worry, however, that this test is too lenient. The ideology-policy correlation is the dominant approach in studies of state responsiveness, and it has been the most fruitful approach to date. However, problems of inference arise because researchers cannot know exactly how diffuse preference measures ought to translate into policy. That is, policy and ideology lack a common metric (Erikson, Wright, and McIver 1993, 93;Matsusaka 2001 but without knowing the mapping of ideology to voter policy preferences, we cannot tell if policy is over-or underresponsive to preferences.Most existing work, by focusing on the ideologypolicy correlation, also does not assess how responsive states are to voter preferences on specific policies. Nor does it tell us how effective state political systems are at translating opinion majorities into public policy. If a majority of voters in a state wants to adopt a lottery or impose an abortion restriction, how likely is the state to do so? In other words, is policy usually congruent with majority will?Both responsiveness and congruence are forms of policy representation, but they capture different dimensions of democratic performance. To be clear, by responsiveness, we mean a positive correlation between opinion and policy; by congruence, we mean that policy actually matches majority opinion. Where majority will is truly sovereign, you would expect both strong responsiveness and a high level of congruence. Policy adoption may increase with higher public support (suggesting responsiveness), but policy may still often be inconsistent with majority opinion (suggesting a lack of congruence),

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North America and the Caribbean

Donovan,

Qvortrup

2024

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Gun Behind the Door? Ballot Initiatives, State Policies and Public Opinion

Cited by 154 publications

References 8 publications

The Impact of Direct Democracy on Governance: A Replication and Extension

The Impact of Direct Democracy on Governance: A Replication and Extension

The Democratic Deficit in the States

North America and the Caribbean

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