“Simultaneous Proposals in Referendums,” Klaudia Wegschaider, Yale

Event time: 
Wednesday, October 9, 2024 - 12:00pm to 1:15pm
Location: 
Institution for Social and Policy Studies (PROS77 ), A002 See map
77 Prospect Street
New Haven, CT 06511
Event description: 

AMERICAN POLITICS & PUBLIC POLICY WORKSHOP

Abstract: Is voting behaviour impacted by having simultaneous proposals on the same topic? Drawing on the literature on the compromise effect, I argue that support for a proposal is higher if it is presented alongside a more extreme version. Empirically, I apply this argument to the substantive topic of electoral rights for immigrants—a contemporary frontier of democratisation. First, I test the argument with an original survey experiment fielded in the United States. Second, I delve into the practical relevance of the topic by focusing on Swiss immigrant enfranchisement referendums. Two case studies clarify how simultaneous referendums emerge and inform a subsequent analysis of voting data. The results of the experiment and the observational analysis both support the idea that the compromise effect shapes voting behaviour in simultaneous referendums. These findings call on scholars to consider the compromise effect in the study of popular votes and political decision-making more generally.

Klaudia Wegschaider is currently a Democratic Innovations postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Social and Policy Studies. Substantively, her work focuses on the causes and consequenses of enfranchisement and other electoral reforms. Methodologically, she combines qualitative with quantitative and experimental methods. In 2023, Klaudia defended her DPhil in Politics at the University of Oxford with ‘no corrections.’ Her dissertation has been awarded the Ernst B. Haas Best Dissertation Prize by the APSA section on European Politics and Society as well as an honourable mention for the best dissertation prize of the APSA section on Migration and Citizenship. Prior to coming to Yale, Klaudia spent a year as a postdoc at the University of Vienna and was a collaborator on a large project at the European University Institute in Florence.

This is a joint workshop event with the Democratic Innovations Workshop at ISPS.

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