Direct Democracy and Individual Interest Group Membership

Direct democracy has been shown to increase the number and diversity of interest groups in American states, but no research has extended this finding to the individual level. Direct democracy may influence individual joining behavior through three distinct processes: first, by affecting the interest group population in a state, direct democracy should increase opportunity for joining. Second, direct democracy opens new policy areas for representation, which may increase the scope and level of political conflict and draw in new participants. Third, by providing more opportunities for involvement in policymaking, direct democracy may create a more engaged citizenry, spurring the joining of groups. We utilize data from the pooled General Social Survey merged with state-level measures of the presence and use of the initiative process. Using multilevel modeling to test the initiative’s effect on individual joining behavior, we find that the initiative does indeed foster greater levels of group membership.