Context, Elites, Media and Public Opinion in Referendums: When Campaigns Really Matter

Abstract

Direct democracy is popular. Across the world referendums and citizen initiatives are an increasingly important means of enacting or preventing legislation. This book argues and demonstrates why campaigns in referendums are important and how they matter for changes in public opinion, political participation, and voters’ choice to say Yes or No. In a referendum campaign, in contrast to a general election campaign where political parties provide relatively clear-cut information cues for voters, the information cues from political parties are often ambiguous. For example, parties may be internally divided over the referendum issue, political parties from opposite sides of the ideological left–right spectrum may form unusual coalitions in referendums, and referendums may also give rise to new parties or movements and thereby reshaping the party system (de Vreese and Semetko, 2004; de Vreese, 2006).