THE STRATEGIC TIMING OF DIRECT DEMOCRACY

Marc Meredith

Economics and Politics, 2009, vol. 21, issue 1, 159-177

Abstract: This paper focuses on the strategic timing of elections by agenda‐setters in direct democracy settings. Because concurrent elections affect turnout, scheduling referenda for different elections will produce different median voters. I hypothesize that agenda‐setters with power over the timing of a referendum will schedule the referendum in conjunction with the other set of races that produce a policy closest to their preferred outcome. Consistent with the theory, I show that Wisconsin school boards' use of special elections for school referenda are related to differences in the revealed preferences of voters in low‐ and high‐turnout elections.

Date: 2009
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https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0343.2008.00342.x

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