Argument-based strategies in direct-democratic votes: The Swiss experience

This paper discusses the role of argument-based, systematic voting in direct-democratic Swiss votes. It presents evidence that Swiss voters are less minimalist than generally expected. In addition, the results of the analysis show that argument-based voting is above all reinforced by two key context characteristics - intense campaigns preceding the vote and familiar projects. Intense campaigns increase argument-based voting above all on the side of the government's opponents and familiar projects tend to do so on both sides. The strong effects of these context characteristics on argument-based voting suggest that the quality of the deliberation of individual voters crucially depends on the quality of the arguments exchanged among the members of the political elites in the course of the debate preceding the vote.