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Direct Democracy and the Link between Public Opinion and State Abortion Policy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2021

Kevin Arceneaux
Kevin Arceneaux*
Affiliation:
Rice University
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Abstract

Is public policy in states that allow initiatives and referenda more responsive to public opinion than in states that do not? Political science theory provides conflicting answers to this question. On one hand, these direct democracy mechanisms give citizens a direct voice in public policy, which may directly and indirectly shape policy to their wishes. On the other hand, formal theories of collective choice call into question the ability of direct democracy to produce policy that reflects the underlying distribution of mass preferences. This study tests these competing hypotheses by assessing the impact of public opinion on abortion policy using a new survey-based measure of state-level abortion attitudes (Brace et al. 2002). The empirical findings indicate that states with initiatives and referenda are more responsive to public opinion on abortion policy.

Type
Research Article
Information
State Politics & Policy Quarterly , Volume 2 , Issue 4 , Winter 2002 , pp. 372 - 387
Copyright
Copyright © The American Political Science Association, 2002

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