The Impact of Direct Democracy on Society - Universität St.Gallen

– 74 –citizen with respect to financial matters <strong>of</strong> the canton, while the second versions is based onthe view <strong>of</strong> the threshold as a financial burden shared among all residents <strong>of</strong> the canton. Asthe studies <strong>of</strong> FREY and STUTZER also focus on the procedural utility gained by Swiss citizensin contrast to foreign residents, the use <strong>of</strong> the first version <strong>of</strong> this index makes sense in theirresearch context. However, as regards the signature requirement, both versions <strong>of</strong> the indexare constructed using the number <strong>of</strong> signature divided by the electorate. <strong>The</strong> correlationbetween these two index versions exceeds the value <strong>of</strong> 0.9. In the case <strong>of</strong> this study, thenumber <strong>of</strong> signatures per voter and the financial threshold per resident is used to reflect thefinancial burden. According to L.P. FELD, this latter setup was also chosen for theconstruction <strong>of</strong> the index between 1980 and 1997 carried out by his colleague CH.A.SCHALTEGGER.Regarding the updating <strong>of</strong> this index, a few general comments need to be made. <strong>The</strong>constitutional initiative that forms part <strong>of</strong> the index refers exclusively to the partial revision <strong>of</strong>the constitution (see STUTZER 1999). In many cantons, it is easier to launch a partial revisionthan a total revision <strong>of</strong> the constitution. Concerning the mandatory and the optional statutoryreferendum, in general, this study only takes into account those referenda referring to all types<strong>of</strong> legislative acts, not those referring to administrative acts. Hence, the loss or gain in citizenpower with respect to the latter should not affect the index <strong>of</strong> direct democracy for a canton.Distinction between the two, however, is almost unmanageable (see section 1), but,fortunately, in most <strong>of</strong> the cantons the referendum on laws, on decrees and on by-laws isequivalent in their requirements. Concerning the fiscal referendum, only the threshold <strong>of</strong>nonrecurring expenses is taken into account, and changes in thresholds for recurring expensesare not reflected in the index <strong>of</strong> direct democracy (see STUTZER 1999). <strong>The</strong> index does notdistinguish whether the expense is a consequence <strong>of</strong> a law or <strong>of</strong> a decree; however, in dailypolitical practice, expenditure projects induced by a decree are more <strong>of</strong>ten the object <strong>of</strong> afiscal referendum. Changes that occur after April 1st in any given year are accounted for inthe following year; for example, the changes in the constitutions <strong>of</strong> Obwalden in June 1997and <strong>of</strong> Glarus in May 2002 influence the index <strong>of</strong> direct democracy only from 1998 and 2003onwards, respectively. As regards the signature requirement, a month is counted ascorresponding to 30 days, 6 weeks to 45 days, and so on.Regarding the statutory referendum, 6 index points are awarded to those cantons in which amandatory statutory referendum exists. In the case <strong>of</strong> an optional referendum, index points are