IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cog/poango/v7y2019i2p227-241.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Perceptions of Referendums and Democracy: The Referendum Disappointment Gap

Author

Listed:
  • Shaun Bowler

    (Department of Political Science, University of California, USA)

  • Todd Donovan

    (Department of Political Science, Western Washington University, USA)

Abstract

We examine the gap between perceptions of seeing referendums as an important democratic principle, versus perceiving how referendums are used in practice. We term this the “referendum disappointment” gap. We find support for referendums as a democratic principle is strongest among those most disaffected from the political system, and that the disaffected are more likely to perceive they are not given a say via referendums. We also find context-specific effects. Disappointment was greater in countries with higher corruption and income inequality. We also find higher disappointment among right-populist voters, those who distrusted politicians, and among people who viewed themselves at the bottom of society. Overall, these patterns reflect disappointment with democracy among sections of society who have a sense of not being heard that conflicts with how they expect democracy should work in principle.

Suggested Citation

  • Shaun Bowler & Todd Donovan, 2019. "Perceptions of Referendums and Democracy: The Referendum Disappointment Gap," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(2), pages 227-241.
    • Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v7:y:2019:i:2:p:227-241
    DOI: 10.17645/pag.v7i2.1874
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/1874
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.17645/pag.v7i2.1874?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v7:y:2019:i:2:p:227-241. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: António Vieira or IT Department (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cogitatiopress.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.