Citizen Support for Direct Democracy Backsliding in the U.S.

• In Event: Democratic Norms, Backsliding, and Public Opinion

Abstract

Scholars have devoted considerable attention to concerns about democratic backsliding in the U.S. and abroad. A primary component of this literature is the extent to which citizens support (or at least tolerate) the undemocratic statements and behaviors of political candidates and officials who are co-partisans and/or advance their policy preferences. Largely absent from this discussion, however, is an assessment of citizen responses to direct democracy backsliding (Matsusaka 2023), or an increase in the costs associated with initiative and referendum use across U.S. states. This is despite multiple recent, high-profile state efforts to restrict direct democracy that some claim are legislative reactions to proposition outcomes they opposed and preemptive attempts to hinder future such results. Although we might expect individuals to downplay direct democracy limitations for partisan or policy gain, the popularity of the process, attitudes toward pure majoritarian rule, and the fact that restrictions on the nonpartisan institution provide less certain guarantees of future political success all suggest that people may be less willing to endorse this type of democratic erosion. We investigate this potential relationship, conducting multiple survey experiments to determine citizens’ responses to direct democracy backsliding. In doing so, we measure their willingness to make it more difficult to legislate via the ballot based on which party proposes the changes, the potential consequences of such changes (that policies with majority citizen support but opposed by state legislatures may not be enacted), and the motivations behind such changes (as a response to prior measure outcomes opposed by the state legislature or a preemptive effort to stop policy it opposes). These findings advance our understanding of an understudied form of democratic backsliding and the situations in which citizens are willing to change institutions for political gain.

Authors

• Daniel R. Biggers, University of California, Riverside

• Jieun Lee, University of California, Riverside