New Forms of Business Influence: How Platform Firms Weaponize Direct Democracy for Private Government

Direct democracy measures were originally introduced in the United States in the Progressive Era to counter special interest influence. Still, businesses have long leveraged them to advance their own agendas. I argue that corporations, and especially platform firms, weaponize direct democracy for private government, bypassing traditional regulatory channels and mobilizing consumers to legislate in their favor. Using an original dataset of ballot initiatives in U.S. states (2002-2023), I show the growing prevalence of this strategy. Through case studies of Uber-led ballot initiatives in California (2020) and Massachusetts (2022), I find that platform firms mobilize citizens to influence policymaking directly and indirectly, going through policymakers. This study contributes to the literature on business power by highlighting the expanding toolkit businesses employ to advance their interests and the double-edged sword of broader democratic participation.