Beyond Representative Democracy? Explaining Demands for Democratic Innovations in Three Federal States

Following the increasing use of participatory democratic innovations across the world, there is a growing body of empirical political science research that investigates whether and why citizens support such innovations, and how they would like important political decisions to be made in general. In this investigation, comparative work has often tested the prevalence of different models of democracy among citizens. However, what has hitherto been overlooked is the potential role of state structures and in particular the degree to which federalism already allows for differentiated policy-making structures. Drawing on our own original survey conducted in late 2020, we take up on this question by investigating: whether there are differences between and within federal countries as to citizen support for democratic innovations. Our analysis includes data from three federal countries – Belgium, Canada and Switzerland – alongside unitary France. In particular, we have surveyed both Dutch- (N = 752) and French-speakers (N = 760) in Belgium, English- (N = 610) and French-speakers (N = 610) in Canada, French- (N = 760), German- (N = 760) and Italian-speakers (N = 750) in Switzerland, and 1220 residents of France. All respondents were invited to position themselves along the same statements regarding the power that should be reserved to elected politicians, experts, randomly selected citizens, and referendums. Participants could also pick and rank among a list of reform options and participated in a conjoint experiment pertaining to decision-making regarding to Covid-19 pandemic.