The Unequal Representation of Income Groups and Direct Democracy
30 Pages Posted: 21 Jan 2016
Date Written: May 16, 2015
Abstract
In many democracies, policymakers and policy outcomes are highly biased towards the preferences of the affluent, although they only constitute a minority of voters. As a consequence, scholars and practitioners alike have become increasingly interested in understanding why this is the case and what can be done about it. So far, most of the discussion has focused on how to modify elements of the representational system in order to increase the voice of the less privileged in the policymaking process. Our analysis shows that direct democracy might be an alternative to achieve this goal, as decisions that are more likely to be congruent with the preferences of the affluent than with those of the less affluent are considerably less common under direct democracy than under representative democracy.
Keywords: Political representation, economic inequality, direct democracy, Switzerland
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