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

– 75 –awarded based on its requirements (absolute and relative signature requirement, time periodfor collection). Usually there exists in Swiss cantons only one <strong>of</strong> the two types <strong>of</strong> statutoryreferenda referring to cantonal laws (and decrees), and hence the final subindex value for thestatutory referendum is out <strong>of</strong> the question. <strong>The</strong> difficulty with this index lies in the question<strong>of</strong> whether decrees and by-laws <strong>of</strong> the cantonal parliament are regarded as 'laws' or asadministrative acts, and whether they should be included in this index or not. This distinctiondiffers from canton to canton, and a decision can only be made according to the legal andpolitical practice. For example, in the case <strong>of</strong> Uri, both the mandatory and the optionalreferendum exist, although the optional referendum concerns only parliamentary by-laws notformal laws. In this case, STUTZER (1999), taking into account that both types exist in parallel,decided to calculate the average <strong>of</strong> both referenda (p. 5). For consistency, I have maintainedthe averaging <strong>of</strong> both institutions for the case <strong>of</strong> Uri. In addition, for the canton <strong>of</strong> Schwyz, themandatory referendum applies to laws and the optional referendum to by-laws, so here againthe average <strong>of</strong> the two referenda is used because some by-laws in particular areas aim atsubstituting for formal laws (STUTZER, 1999, p. 5). Again to maintain consistency, I will als<strong>of</strong>ollow this approach. In a few cantons (SO, BL, SH, AG), a majority restriction wasintroduced for the application <strong>of</strong> the mandatory statutory referendum during the period from1997 to 2003; if this requirement is not met, the optional referendum applies. In these cases, Ireplicate the approach chosen by STUTZER (1999) and calculate the average <strong>of</strong> both types <strong>of</strong>statutory referenda. As the constitutional change in Glarus led de facto to no restriction <strong>of</strong> theuse and scope <strong>of</strong> the mandatory statutory referendum for cantonal laws, only this institutionwill be taken into account for the index construction.As regards the fiscal referendum, both the optional and the mandatory referenda are awardedindex points separately and an index value is calculated for each. <strong>The</strong> higher value <strong>of</strong> the twois then chosen, which constitutes the subindex <strong>of</strong> the fiscal referendum. In general, nodistinction is made as to whether the fiscal referendum applies to a law or to a decree. Formost <strong>of</strong> the cantons, the threshold for expenditure projects induced by laws or decrees isidentical. Only the canton <strong>of</strong> Luzern makes an exception: here, the considerably lowerfinancial threshold for decrees is employed as done in STUTZER (1999). <strong>The</strong>se thresholds haveremained unchanged since 1995. In the canton <strong>of</strong> Schaffhausen, the fiscal referenda applysolely to decrees, not to laws; hence, the value <strong>of</strong> the subindex is based exclusively upon theseconstitutional stipulations. In the old constitution prior to January 2003, a lower threshold forthe mandatory fiscal referendum was fixed when a decree was passed with less than a fourfifthsmajority. STUTZER (1999) did not take this specific regulation into account, probably