Direct Democracy

The rising use of direct democratic procedures within states but also cross-nationally increases the interest in and the relevance of the research on direct democracy. At the theoretical as well as at the empirical level, scholars, who have been participating in the long-standing debate on direct democracy, came up with different conclusions and evidence about the extent and kind of impact that direct democratic procedures have on the political processes and system as a whole.The purpose of the article is to give a thorough picture of major contributions that have helped to advance this dynamic field of research. It will be shown how the theoretical and empirical approaches applied have considerably changed and improved over time, whereas the questions at the heart of the direct democracy debate have basically remained the same.