Direct‐Democratic Rules: The Role of Discussion
基于瑞士的实验证据和实证发现，论证直接民主通过制度化政治讨论，在公共品提供和再分配方面表现良好，并探讨其在欧洲框架中的应用。
Referenda and initiatives are hardly considered as democratic devices for a future Europe. Drawing on experimental evidence and empirical findings for Switzerland, the authors argue that direct democracy performs well for the provision of public goods and redistribution as it institutionalizes the political discussion. Communication induces the citizens to transform a public decision into a private choice and to break the politician's agenda-setting monopoly: relevant alternatives are no longer exogenously given but emerge in a process of deliberation. This process is needed in a European framework if social dilemmas and redistribution problems are to be solved according to the citizens' preferences. Copyright 1994 by WWZ and Helbing & Lichtenhahn Verlag AG