2025/04/11 by Ronja Sczepanski · 1 voice
Social Sciences · Business, Management and Accounting · #European Union Policy and Governance #Electoral Systems and Political Participation #Political Influence and Corporate Strategies
paper · doi:10.1080/07036337.2025.2490156
When citizens use a referendum to vote down a government-backed proposal on the European Union, it constitutes an unusual event that attracts interest from both the public and researchers. However, it remains unclear whether people actually gain more knowledge about the issue on which they voted. Research suggests that the salience of an issue should lead to increased political knowledge, but is this actually the case? This study examines whether the defeat of the European Union constitution in a French referendum affected citizens’ understanding of the Constitution. Using a regression discontinuity design (RDD), the findings indicate that the referendum outcome did not result in a substantive gain in knowledge. These results contribute to our understanding of the extent to which knowledge drives opinion and attitude change following unusual events, and whether direct democracy indirectly stimulates citizens’ cognitive engagement with European Union politics.