The Use of the Endorsement Heuristic in Swiss Popular Votes

There already exists an impressive body of literature studying the use of voting recommendations in elections and popular votes. The main shortcoming of most of these observational studies is the measurement of voting recommendations. There is rarely any direct evidence to show that voters did indeed follow a recommendation when making a vote decision. Thus, it is not clear how widespread the use of such voting endorsements is. We measured the use of endorsements by evaluating the voting motives reported by the voters themselves. Employing this measure, we could show that endorsements have an impact on Swiss referendum votes. Depending on the issue at stake, between 2 and 27 percent of the voters admitted that they based their decision on recommendations. Moreover, the use of endorsements heavily depends on motivation, project‐specific knowledge level, and degree of ambivalence towards the issue at stake. Zur Bedeutung von Empfehlungen in Wahlen und Abstimmungen wurde bereits ausgiebig geforscht. Indes, die meisten dieser nicht-experimentellen Untersuchungen weisen einen Mangel auf: Selten einmal wird die Verwendung von Empfehlungen direkt gemessen. Deshalb ist auch nicht klar, wie oft Stimmempfehlungen der Regierung, von Parteien oder anderen Akteuren bei Sachabstimmungen genutzt werden. Wir haben die Verwendung von Empfehlungen und Parolen direkt erhoben, indem wir die Motivangaben der Wählerinnen und Wähler auswerteten. Dabei zeigt sich, dass Empfehlungen von rund zwei bis maximal 27 Prozent der Stimmenden genutzt werden. Die Nutzung von Empfehlungen in Sachabstimmungen ist im Wesentlichen von der individuellen Motivation, der Vorlagenkenntnis und dem Überzeugungsgrad der Haltungen abhängig

Taking cues on Europe?: voter competence and party endorsements in referendums on European integration

One of the criticisms often levelled against direct democracy is that citizens lack sufficient knowledge to vote directly on policy issues. The ‘No’ votes in the French and Dutch referendums on the Constitutional Treaty have highlighted the importance of examining voter competence in referendums. This article proposes a theoretical framework for evaluating competence in EU referendums. It suggests that competent voting in EU referendums is based on issue-specific preferences and requires political information. Since most voters have little detailed knowledge of European integration, they rely on heuristics and cues when deciding how to vote. The important question is how much and which type of information voters require to make competent choices. This article examines whether and under what conditions the use of party endorsements as information cues can enhance competent voting in EU referendums. These theoretical questions are examined in an analysis of the 1994 Norwegian referendum on EU membership