A Monkey Cage reader asks:
I’m just curious, is there much information out there about what (if anything) precisely impacts voting on referendums or initiatives? And if so, what aspects of a referendum campaign are most effective (like advertising, phone banking, door to door campaigning, etc.). Any information and/or help locating any information would be much appreciated.
There is some work on whether the presence of initiatives on the ballot serves as a mobilizing factor. See, e.g., here or here. I’m not sure about work that specifically addresses what means of mobilization motivate people to vote in such campaigns. I assume that studies of mobilization in elections generally would have some applicability, however.
On how voters make choices in initiatives, I think a dominant notion is that voters rely on shortcuts or heuristics. See, for example, Arthur Lupia’s piece on the role of group endorsements—as well as other of his work. Or Regina Branton’s piece, which highlights the role of party identification. There are also other relevant pieces listed under hers.
I welcome other suggestions.
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Here’s a solid overview on the “educative effects” of direct democracy. It’s part overview and part research but it’s a good summation. When referendums and initiatives are on the ballot, they describe robust and significant increase in political participation and increased political trust in government, etc, just to list a couple.
http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/dasmith/CLRPrimerl.pdf
Really, anything by Bowler, Donovan, Smith, Tolbert, Mooney, Lupia, Matsusaka, Goebel, Nicholson and/or Magelby (in no particular order) are all really good. Also, many of these scholars have very comprehensive syllabi on direct democracy literature. For example, here’s a start: http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/dasmith/POS6279.pdf
Hope this helps.
Good response, John. I wonder if the poster is an undergrad, grad, or just interested reader. For the undergrad/grad, I’d add that the reason we don’t know a lot is because referendums and initiatives vary so greatly on topic, that we study what we can: turnout, interest, information. It’s a great project to study voter choice on individual or sets of initiatives, but that would be a more qualitatively oriented project.
however see also John Matsusaka’s book: http://www.amazon.com/Many-Few-Initiative-Democracy-Political/dp/0226510824/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1330360479&sr=8-1
And Stephen Nicholson’s book: http://www.amazon.com/Voting-Agenda-Candidates-Elections-Propositions/dp/0691116849/ref=pd_sim_b_5
Shauna Reilly and Sean Richey’s piece (previously discussed on this blog, but here from PRQ: http://prq.sagepub.com/content/64/1/59.short) highlights that it isn’t just the mobilization efforts that affect direct democracy. Question wording matters, too. This article is less helpful if the questioner is asking specifically about increasing turnout for recall elections (i.e., Scott Walker in WI).