Direct Democracy and the Politics of Abortion Evaluating the….pdfVIP

Direct Democracy and the Politics of Abortion: Evaluating the Responsiveness of State Abortion Policy to State Abortion Attitudes By Samantha E. Holquist In 1993, researchers began to explore legislative agenda that is proposed by whether public policies in states with the citizens. A referendum is a vote by initiative and referendum mechanisms the citizens to accept, reject, or repeal a are more responsive to public opinion proposal, such as a constitutional amend- than in those states that do not have such ment or law. According to public opinion mechanisms. There is yet no conclusive surveys, 70 percent of the nation’s popula- answer to this question. To examine tion supports direct democracy at the state this relationship, I add to the work of and local level (Matsusaka 2005). While Kevin Arceneaux’s 2002 study, which direct democracy is more prevalent west of utilizes public opinion data to analyze the the Mississippi, each region of the country responsiveness of state abortion policies contains at least a few direct democracy to citizen abortion attitudes in states with states. Beginning in 1977, citizen use of and without initiatives and referendums. the initiative and referendum process has Additionally, my analysis looked to reflected increased acceptance; usage is up differentiate policy responsiveness along the lines of how difficult the about 164 percent since 1898 when South implementation environment is within Dakota first adopted the process (Ernst a state. My results showed that there is 2001). This increase