Det förstärkta folkinitiativet
(2020) STVK02 20192Department 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)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/8999331
- author
- Hjelm, Mathilda LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- STVK02 20192
- year
- 2020
- 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}}, }