We study direct democracy with population uncertainty. Voters’ participation is often among the desiderata by the election designer. We show that with a participation quorum, i.e. a threshold on the fraction of participating voters below which the status quo is kept, the status quo may be kept in situations where the planner would prefer the reform, or the reform is passed when the planner pref...

In addition to the historic events surrounding the Florida vote, the outcome of the 2000 US Presidential Election has sparked a widespread discussion of the current electoral system. This discussion is not likely to fade away with a final resolution of the election outcome. The first part of this note points to some problems surrounding the voting logistics. Problems of this type are in the cen...

Research on a variety of democracies has shown that there is link between mass preferences and public policy. It also been documented policy tends to be more responsive the affluent citizens. We know little, however, about citizens’ perceptions responsiveness their consequences for electoral participation. This manuscript addresses this issue by analysing unequal responsiveness, extent which th...