Social Justification and Political Legitimacy: How Voters Rationalize Direct Democratic Economic Policy in America

This volume explores voters’ political rationalizations. The author analyzes semi-structured interview data from 120 American voters collected from 2013-2015 about their positions on three economic referenda—or “direct democratic economic policies” (DDEPs) on the Arizona state ballot from 2008-2012. Building on the literature on voter reasoning and rationalization, the author firstly probes how the intersection of economic position and partisan affiliation shape partisan voters’ rationaliza...