00_abstract.Rmd

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title: "Direct Democracy in Europe"
subtitle: "Concept and Questions"
author: "Fabio Votta and Rosa Seitz"
date: "26 February 2017"
output: pdf_document
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**Research question**

Has direct democracy an effect on satisfaction with the way democracy works?

**Theory**

Easton, Fuchs, etc. -> political support

**Hypotheses**

H1: Direct democracy has a positive effect on individual satisfaction with democracy.

H2: The H1-effect is moderated by...

1. political apathy (Operationalization -> voters (compared to non-voters), problem: occasional voters can not be separated)
2. socio-economic status/income
3. political interest (problem: might be influenced by DD & ambiguously related to SWD -> "assertive citizens"") 
4. party identification
 
**Data & Operationalization**

ESS - without Israel/Russia?, most recent data (2010 - 2016)

Method: MLA

1. Direct Dmeocracy 
  + IDEA
    Number of DD provisions (not usage) on national and local level 
  + V-DEM
    Participatory component index
    
  + c2d
    Number of initiatives/referendums in the past on national level
    Regional level posiible, but data incomplete & not systematically gathered & no controls
    
    
2. Controls
  + Level 1
    - Education, Age, Gender
    - Satisfaction with th economy
    - Household income 
    - Unemployment
    - Possibly Post-materialism 
  + Level 2
    (Not all possible, maybe seperate regressions)
    - GDP, bzw. GDP-Growth
    - Inflation
    - ENOP
    - Age of democracy
    - Unemployment rate
    - Dummy: former communist country
    - Dummy: east-west europe