Public Opinion and Direct Democracy

Russell J. Dalton, Wilhelm Bürklin, and Andrew Drummond

Journal of Democracy, October 2001

Further information not contained in the printed article




The original German wording to the question follows:

Es unterhalten sich zwei über verschiedene Formen derDemokratie. Welche von beiden Meinungen sagt eher das, was auch Sie denken? Die eine Meinung:
“Ich bin für eine repräsentative Demokratie, also dass das Volk das Parlament wählt und dann das Parlament die politischen Entscheidungen trifft und dafür auch die Verantwortung übernimmt. Die Abgeordneten sind doch meistens besser informiert.”
Die andere Meinung:
“Ich bin für eine direkte Demokratie, also dass möglichst viele politische Entscheidungen in Volksabstimmungen getroffen werden. Dann geschieht wirklich das, was das Volk will.


The educational differences in support for direct democracy are as follows:

Hauptschule
Mittlere R. 
Polytechnic
Abitur+
Eastern Germany 
68%  
68%  
65%  
51%
Western Germany  
64% 
58%  
--
35%

One might attribute this pattern to the remnants of the ideological prerequisites of higher education in the former German Democratic Republic, except that this educational pattern appears even more starkly in western Germany. The better educated in the West are much less supportive of direct democracy and more likely to put their faith in representative democracy.
 


The following table summarizes these relationships with support for direct democracy.

The entries are pearson r correlations; correlations significant at .05 level are denoted by an asterisk:

West
East
Disatisfaction with Parties    
Parties not interested in public opinions .19* .08
Parteien notwendig   .13*  .03
Disatisfaction with Politicians    
Deputies don’t know citizens’ opinions .12* .13*
Doesn’t make a difference who governs  .08*  .10*
Elections don’t influence policy  .09* .11*
Elections don’t select correct leadership .13* .07
Policy Dissatisfaction    
Differences to CDU on Left/Right scale .15* .15*