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Constitutions and policy comparisons : direct and representative democracy when states learn from their neighbours
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Hugh-Jones, David (2009) Constitutions and policy comparisons : direct and representative democracy when states learn from their neighbours. Journal of Theoretical Politics, Vol.21 (No.1). pp. 25-61. doi:10.1177/0951629808097283 ISSN 0951-6298.
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0951629808097283
Abstract
Voters in democracies can learn from the experience of neighbouring states: about policy in a direct democracy (`policy experimentation'), about the quality of their politicians in a representative democracy (`yardstick competition'). Learning between states creates spillovers from policy choice, and also from constitutional choice. I model these spillovers in a simple principal-agent framework, and show that voter welfare may be maximized by a mixture of representative and direct democratic states. Because of this, empirical work examining voter welfare under direct democracy may need to be reinterpreted. Also, I show that the optimal mix of constitutions cannot always be achieved in a constitutional choice equilibrium involving many states.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||
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Subjects: | J Political Science > JZ International relations | ||||
Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Economics | ||||
Journal or Publication Title: | Journal of Theoretical Politics | ||||
Publisher: | Sage Publications Ltd. | ||||
ISSN: | 0951-6298 | ||||
Official Date: | January 2009 | ||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | Vol.21 | ||||
Number: | No.1 | ||||
Number of Pages: | 37 | ||||
Page Range: | pp. 25-61 | ||||
DOI: | 10.1177/0951629808097283 | ||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||
Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access |
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