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Issue Unbundling via Citizens' Initiatives

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Author Info
Timothy Besley
Stephen Coate

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Abstract

The role of citizens' initiatives figures prominently in contemporary debates on constitutional change. A basic question is why are initiatives necessary in a representative democracy where candidates must already compete for the right to control policy? This paper offers one answer to this question. In a representative democracy, the bundling of issues together with the fact that citizens have only one vote, means that policy outcomes on specific issues may diverge far from what the majority of citizens want. In such circumstances, allowing citizens to put legislation directly on the ballot, permits the unbundling' of these issues, which forces a closer relationship between policy outcomes and popular preferences. To the extent that it is considered socially undesirable for outcomes on specific issues to stray too far from what the majority wants, this creates a role for citizens' initiatives.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 8036.

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Date of creation: Dec 2000
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:8036

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Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Osborne, Martin J & Slivinski, Al, 1996. "A Model of Political Competition with Citizen-Candidates," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 111(1), pages 65-96, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  2. Besley, Timothy J. & Coate, Stephen, 2000. "Elected Versus Appointed Regulators: Theory And Evidence," CEPR Discussion Papers 2381, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  3. Matsusaka, John G, 1995. "Fiscal Effects of the Voter Initiative: Evidence from the Last 30 Years," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 103(3), pages 587-623, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Besley, Timothy & Coate, Stephen, 2001. "Lobbying and Welfare in a Representative Democracy," Review of Economic Studies, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 68(1), pages 67-82, January.
  5. Pommerehne, Werner W., 1990. "The empirical relevance of comparative institutional analysis," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(2-3), pages 458-469, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Matsusaka, John G, 1992. "Economics of Direct Legislation," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 107(2), pages 541-71, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Grossman, Gene M & Helpman, Elhanan, 1996. "Electoral Competition and Special Interest Politics," Review of Economic Studies, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 63(2), pages 265-86, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  8. Besley, Timothy & Coate, Stephen, 1997. "An Economic Model of Representative Democracy," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 112(1), pages 85-114, February.
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  9. Matsusaka, John G & McCarty, Nolan M, 2001. "Political Resource Allocation: Benefits and Costs of Voter Initiatives," Journal of Law, Economics and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 17(2), pages 413-48, October.
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Besley, Timothy J. & Payne, A. Abigail, 2005. "Implementation of Anti-Discrimination Policy: Does Judicial Selection Matter?," CEPR Discussion Papers 5211, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  2. Raquel Fernández & Gilat Levy, 2005. "Diversity and Redistribution," NBER Working Papers 11570, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Debora Di Gioacchino & Sergio Ginebri & Laura Sabani, 2004. "Political support for anti-inflationary monetary policy," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 9(2), pages 187-200. [Downloadable!]
  4. Gilat Levy, 2004. "Public Education for the Minority,Private Education for the Majority," STICERD - Theoretical Economics Paper Series /2004/470, Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines, LSE. [Downloadable!]
  5. Stephen Coate, 2003. "Power-hungry Candidates, Policy Favors, and Pareto Improving Campaign Finance Policy," NBER Working Papers 9601, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Stephen Coate, 2001. "Political Competition with Campaign Contributions and Informative Advertising," NBER Working Papers 8693, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  7. Frédéric Robert-Nicoud & Federica Sbergami, 1999. "Endogenous Regional Policy in a Model of Agglomeration," HEI Working Papers 02-2001, Economics Section, The Graduate Institute of International Studies. [Downloadable!]
  8. Fischer, Justina AV, 2009. "Development of Direct Democracy in Swiss Cantons between 1997 and 2003," MPRA Paper 16140, University Library of Munich, Germany. [Downloadable!]
  9. James E. Alt & David Dreyer Lassen, 2002. "The Political Economy of Institutions and Corruption in American States," EPRU Working Paper Series 02-16, Economic Policy Research Unit (EPRU), University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  10. Fernández, Raquel & Levy, Gilat, 2005. "Class and Tastes: The Effects of Income and Preference Heterogeneity on Redistribution," CEPR Discussion Papers 4834, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. Mario Jametti & Marius Brülhart, 2007. "Does Tax Competition Tame the Leviathan?," Working Papers 2007_7, York University, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
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  12. Di Gioacchino, Debora & Ginebri, Sergio & Sabani, Laura, 2005. "Inequality, redistribution and the allocation of public spending in education. A political-economy approach," Economics & Statistics Discussion Papers esdp05024, University of Molise, Dept. SEGeS. [Downloadable!]
  13. Tim Besley & Abigail Payne, 2003. "Judicial accountability and economic policy outcomes: evidence from employment discrimination charges," IFS Working Papers W03/11, Institute for Fiscal Studies. [Downloadable!]
  14. Bruno S. Frey & Alois Stutzer, 2003. "Direct Democracy: Designing a Living Constitution," CREMA Working Paper Series 2003-05, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  15. Patrick Bayer & Robert McMillan & Kim Rueben, 2004. "Residential Segregation in General Equilibrium," Working Papers 885, Economic Growth Center, Yale University. [Downloadable!]
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  16. Bruno S. Frey & Alois Stutzer, . "The Role of Direct Democracy and Federalism in Local Power," IEW - Working Papers iewwp209, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - IEW. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  17. Lars P. Feld, 2004. "The European Constitution Project from the Perspective of Constitutional Political Economy," Marburg Working Papers on Economics 200415, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  18. Lars P. Feld & Gebhard Kirchgässner, 2004. "The Role of Direct Democracy in the European Union," Marburg Working Papers on Economics 200423, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  19. Justina A.V. Fischer, 2005. "Do Institutions of Direct Democracy Tame the Leviathan? Swiss Evidence on the Structure of Expenditure for Public Education," University of St. Gallen Department of Economics working paper series 2005 2005-22, Department of Economics, University of St. Gallen. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  20. Di Gioacchino, Debora & Ginebri, Sergio & Sabani, Laura, 2003. "The Political Power of the Owners of Public Debt," Economics & Statistics Discussion Papers esdp03006, University of Molise, Dept. SEGeS. [Downloadable!]
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