Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/214445 
Year of Publication: 
2009
Series/Report no.: 
CREMA Working Paper No. 2009-18
Publisher: 
Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA), Basel
Abstract: 
There is a basic tension between the principle of democracy and the rule of law. This becomes obvious whenever the Swiss citizens accept an initiative that is incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights. First, we discuss the traditions behind these two principles before we survey the empirical papers about the relation between direct democracy and minority rights in the US as well as in Switzerland. Then we discuss the literature on the relation between direct democracy and death penalty. There, the conflict becomes rather obvious. Solutions, which will always involve compromises between these two principles, necessitate some role of the Supreme Court, at the cost of some, but only minor limitations of direct popular rights.
Subjects: 
Direct Democracy
Human Rights
Constitution
Rule of Law
JEL: 
H11
H72
H74
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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