Direct Democracy and Life Satisfaction Revisited: new evidence for Switzerland

Publication Type

Journal contribution

Authors

Sousa-Poza, A/Dorn, D/Fischer, JA/Kirchgässner, G

Year of publication

2008

Published in

Journal of Happiness Studies

ISBN / ISSN / eISSN

1389-4978

DOI

10.1007/s10902-007-9050-9

Page (from - to)

227-255

We re-evaluate the relation between cantonal direct democracy and perceived subjective well-being in Switzerland using new data from the Swiss Household Panel. In addition, this study goes beyond previous work by carefully controlling for cultural determinants of happiness such as languages and religion. We find that once language is controlled for, no robust significant relationship between the extent of direct democracy and life satisfaction can be observed. The results also show that direct democracy does not affect well-being within language groups in Switzerland.