Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Minnesota Law Review

Volume

97

Publication Date

2013

Keywords

Direct Democracy; Public Interest; Candidate Elections; Voting Ethics; Political Morality; Representation

Abstract

The voting levers in candidate elections and in direct democracy elections are identical. The political obligations that bind the citizens that pull them are not. This Essay argues that voters in direct democracy elections, unlike their counterparts in candidate elections, serve as representatives of the people and are, accordingly, bound by the ethics of political representation. Upending the traditional dichotomy between representative and direct democracy, this Essay explains why citizens voting in direct democracy are representative legislators who must vote in the public interest and must not vote in their private interests.

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