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System contexts and system effects of direct democracy - direct democracy in Liechtenstein and Switzerland compared

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Abstract

In recent years, there has been a considerable increase in the number of states in which politically active citizens have a direct involvement in political decision-making by means of direct-democratic procedures. At the same time, the use of direct-democratic instruments has also intensified (Marxer 2004, p. 29f.). Within political science, a number of different factors are held responsible for this ‘renaissance’: in the wake of the “third wave of democratisation”, direct-democratic procedures were incorporated into the constitutions of most of the new democracies of Latin America and of those countries in central and eastern Europe which had undergone democratic reform. (Matsusaka 2004). Within the established democracies, the resurgence of direct democracy - which resulted in an extension to the arsenal of direct-democratic tools - came about not least as a response to growing criticism of the shortcomings of representative democracy, as well as to the increasing domination of political life by the political parties (Abromeit 2002). Last but not least, the process of European integration, with referendums on EU accession, on a series of treaties (Maastricht, Nice, Amsterdam), and on a common currency (the Euro), has also contributed to an increase in the number of referendums.

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Zoltán Tibor Pállinger Bruno Kaufmann Wilfried Marxer Theo Schiller

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© 2007 VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften | GWV Fachverlage GmbH, Wiesbaden

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Marxer, W., Pállinger, Z.T. (2007). System contexts and system effects of direct democracy - direct democracy in Liechtenstein and Switzerland compared. In: Pállinger, Z.T., Kaufmann, B., Marxer, W., Schiller, T. (eds) Direct Democracy in Europe. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-531-90579-2_1

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