The making of the informed voter: A split-ballot survey on the use of scientific evidence in direct-democratic campaigns

Stucki, Iris; Pleger, Lyn Ellen; Sager, Fritz (2018). The making of the informed voter: A split-ballot survey on the use of scientific evidence in direct-democratic campaigns. Swiss Political Science Review, 24(2), pp. 115-139. Wiley 10.1111/spsr.12290

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Literature claims that scientific evidence makes better democracies. This paper analyses whether and which voters choose empirical evidence in the form of policy evaluation results when informing themselves about issue-specific votes. The analysis is based on a split-ballot survey where participants chose media items with different content to make a decision on a specific issue. Results show that voters do indeed choose evidence-based information, especially if their involvement with the issue is high and if they are well educated and that they choose a higher amount of such information if they are also politically engaged. In a setting that fosters political engagement and provides policy-relevant information, the findings imply that voters want to be informed when making a democratic issue choice. Involved and engaged voters might be a solution to sceptics against direct democracy out of fear of uninformed decisions and post-factual populism.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

11 Centers of Competence > KPM Center for Public Management

UniBE Contributor:

Stucki, Iris, Pleger, Lyn Ellen, Sager, Fritz

Subjects:

300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology > 350 Public administration & military science

ISSN:

1662-6370

Publisher:

Wiley

Language:

English

Submitter:

Deborah Anna Fritzsche

Date Deposited:

13 Jun 2018 12:27

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 15:11

Publisher DOI:

10.1111/spsr.12290

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.113154

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/113154

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