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Det förstärkta folkinitiativet

Hjelm, Mathilda LU (2020) STVK02 20192
Department of Political Science
Abstract
On January 1, 2011, a new law came into place called “Det förstärkta folkinitiativet”. The law meant that Sweden lowered the barrier for citizens to demand local referendums. This study examines the effect of local referendums as a participatory democratic instrument from two perspectives, if it increases voter participation in subsequent local elections, and whether it can lead to power shifts in the municipalities. In the empirical examination it emerged that it’s difficult to conclude that referendums alone raise voter participation and cause power shifts in municipalities. There are individual cases where this was the case, for example, Ängelholm, Sunne, Grums and Årjäng. However, when you consider all the 28 municipalities in the... (More)
On January 1, 2011, a new law came into place called “Det förstärkta folkinitiativet”. The law meant that Sweden lowered the barrier for citizens to demand local referendums. This study examines the effect of local referendums as a participatory democratic instrument from two perspectives, if it increases voter participation in subsequent local elections, and whether it can lead to power shifts in the municipalities. In the empirical examination it emerged that it’s difficult to conclude that referendums alone raise voter participation and cause power shifts in municipalities. There are individual cases where this was the case, for example, Ängelholm, Sunne, Grums and Årjäng. However, when you consider all the 28 municipalities in the study, the result becomes more ambiguous. The empirical examination could on the other hand conclude that municipal referendums does not affect voter participation, two elections in a row. Many advocates of a participatory democratic system believe that it would be a solution for many of the inherent problems that exist within the representative democracy. However, the empirical examination of this study could deduce several instances where the local referendums had an inherent risk of causing dissatisfaction and polarization in the municipalities. (Less)
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author
Hjelm, Mathilda LU
supervisor
organization
course
STVK02 20192
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
keywords
Det förstärkta folkinitiativet, Local Referendums, Participatory Democratic System, Representative Democracy, Participatory Democratic Instrument
language
Swedish
id
8999331
date added to LUP
2020-03-02 09:38:12
date last changed
2020-09-23 10:21:14
@misc{8999331,
  abstract     = {{On January 1, 2011, a new law came into place called “Det förstärkta folkinitiativet”. The law meant that Sweden lowered the barrier for citizens to demand local referendums. This study examines the effect of local referendums as a participatory democratic instrument from two perspectives, if it increases voter participation in subsequent local elections, and whether it can lead to power shifts in the municipalities. In the empirical examination it emerged that it’s difficult to conclude that referendums alone raise voter participation and cause power shifts in municipalities. There are individual cases where this was the case, for example, Ängelholm, Sunne, Grums and Årjäng. However, when you consider all the 28 municipalities in the study, the result becomes more ambiguous. The empirical examination could on the other hand conclude that municipal referendums does not affect voter participation, two elections in a row. Many advocates of a participatory democratic system believe that it would be a solution for many of the inherent problems that exist within the representative democracy. However, the empirical examination of this study could deduce several instances where the local referendums had an inherent risk of causing dissatisfaction and polarization in the municipalities.}},
  author       = {{Hjelm, Mathilda}},
  language     = {{swe}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Det förstärkta folkinitiativet}},
  year         = {{2020}},
}