Replication Data for: JUSTIFICATIONS AND CITIZEN COMPETENCE IN DIRECT DEMOCRACY – A Multilevel Analysis

While the popularity and implementation of direct democratic instruments is growing throughout the democratic world, the criticism that ordinary voters lack the necessary competence to make policy decisions persists. This paper presents novel and original a measure of voters’ level of justification as a possible, policy-specific, conceptualization of citizen competence in direct democracy. Using a unique dataset based on 34 ballot decisions in Switzerland, the study explores the levels and correlates of citizen competence by means of a multilevel analysis. The main findings are, first, that most voters know relevant policy-arguments. Second, the context is just as important as individual resources in determining voters’ competence. Finally, with regard to individual resources, motivation correlates more strongly with competence than ability.尽管直接民主工具的普及与实施在全球民主社会中不断推进，但有关普通选民缺乏制定政策决策所需能力的批评始终存在。本文提出了一项新颖且原创的衡量指标，用于测度选民的论证合理性水平，以此作为直接民主体制下公民能力的政策专属化概念框架。本研究依托基于瑞士34项公民投票决议构建的独特数据集，采用多层分析方法，探究了公民能力的水平及其关联影响因素。主要研究结论如下：其一，绝大多数选民都知晓与政策相关的论证论据；其二，在影响选民能力的各类因素中，所处环境的重要性与个体资源不相上下；其三，就个体资源而言，投票动机与选民能力的相关性要强于个人能力本身。