Losing gracefully? On the effects of frequent defeat in direct democracy on political trust, support and participation

While the consequences of electoral defeat on citizens’ political attitudes have been extensively studied in representative democracies, research on losing in popular votes is scarce, particularly for established direct-democratic contexts. This study contributes to understanding the long-term dynamics of voting defeat by examining individual effects of losing frequency on political trust, support for direct democracy and participation in popular votes. It focuses on Switzerland by relying on data collected through a representative population survey. In line with the literature on losers’ consent, we find that frequent defeat in popular votes decreases political trust. However, losing frequency is positively associated with support for direct democracy and the likelihood of participation in popular votes. These rather optimistic results invite the conclusion that frequently losing out in a polity with extensive use of direct democracy can yield some desired consequences.