Risk Determinants of direct democracy across Europe.

Abstract

This paper investigates on the demographic, economic, political and cultural determinants of direct democracy in European States using an index of citizen law-making for 43 countries. The test is interesting since there are important variations across European countries in the referendum and initiative use. We find that per capita income, population and ethnic fractionalization are poor determinants of direct democracy, while majoritarian elections and presidential systems are in general negatively related to direct democracy. A larger share of Catholic population is a positive determinant, whereas Muslims have a negative effect. Quality of governance indicators have a positive effect.