Céline Colombo
Biographic Data
| ID | 4371174 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Céline Colombo |
| GIVEN NAMES | Céline |
| FAMILY NAME | Colombo |
| SIGNATURE | COLOMBO C |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Zurich |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2259-7173 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 6 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 185 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 6 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2018 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Who supports deliberative mini-publics in a context of direct democracy? The role of trust and dissatisfaction
Existing research on public perceptions of deliberative mini-publics focuses on contexts of representative democracy. We present the first study that explores citizen support for deliberative mini-publics in a polity characterised by extensive direct democracy, where citizen participation is already substantive and frequent. Empirically, we draw on a population survey featuring a conjoint experiment with 3700 respondents conducted in early 2023 i…
How “Us” and “Them” Relates to Voting Behavior—Social Structure, Social Identities, and Electoral Choice
The last decades have seen the emergence of a divide pitting the new left against the far right in advanced democracies. We study how this universalism-particularism divide is crystallizing into a full-blown cleavage, complete with structural, political and identity elements. So far, little research exists on the identities that voters themselves perceive as relevant for drawing in- and out-group boundaries along this divide. Based on an original…
Principled or Pragmatic? Morality Politics in Direct Democracy
Political scientists often distinguish between two types of issues: moral versus non-moral issues or social-cultural versus economic issues. The implication is that these types of issues trigger different types of reasoning: while economic issues rely on pragmatic, consequentialist reasoning, social-cultural issues are said to be dependent on principles and deontological reasoning. However, it is not known whether this distinction is as clear-cut…
Taking cues from the government: Heuristic Versus Systematic Processing in a Constitutional Referendum
One of the main criticisms of direct democracy is that it places excessive demands on voters. Are citizens competent enough to vote directly on policy issues? When stakes are high, do citizens mainly follow elites’ signals or do they decide in line with their issue preferences? This article addresses these questions in a multi-method setting by combining observational and experimental data from an original three-wave panel survey conducted during…
Hearing the Other Side? – Debiasing Political Opinions in the Case of the Scottish Independence Referendum
This study reports the effects of two debiasing strategies on the complexity of people’s thinking on a controversial policy issue – the question of Scottish independence. I start from the well-researched assumptions of motivated reasoning theory that individuals tend to protect their beliefs, are often not willing to hear the other side and fail to integrate contrasting arguments and different perspectives in their political considerations – alth…
Justifications and Citizen Competence in Direct Democracy: A Multilevel Analysis
The criticism that ordinary voters lack the necessary competence to make policy decisions persists despite the growth, popularity and implementation of direct democratic instruments throughout the democratic world. This article presents a novel measure of voters’ levels of justification as a possible, policy-specific, conceptualization of citizen competence in direct democracy. Using a unique dataset based on thirty-four ballot decisions in Switz…
How “Us” and “Them” Relates to Voting Behavior—Social Structure, Social Identities, and Electoral Choice
The last decades have seen the emergence of a divide pitting the new left against the far right in advanced democracies. We study how this universalism-particularism divide is crystallizing into a full-blown cleavage, complete with structural, political and identity elements. So far, little research exists on the identities that voters themselves perceive as relevant for drawing in- and out-group boundaries along this divide. Based on an original…
Justifications and Citizen Competence in Direct Democracy: A Multilevel Analysis
The criticism that ordinary voters lack the necessary competence to make policy decisions persists despite the growth, popularity and implementation of direct democratic instruments throughout the democratic world. This article presents a novel measure of voters’ levels of justification as a possible, policy-specific, conceptualization of citizen competence in direct democracy. Using a unique dataset based on thirty-four ballot decisions in Switz…
Principled or Pragmatic? Morality Politics in Direct Democracy
Political scientists often distinguish between two types of issues: moral versus non-moral issues or social-cultural versus economic issues. The implication is that these types of issues trigger different types of reasoning: while economic issues rely on pragmatic, consequentialist reasoning, social-cultural issues are said to be dependent on principles and deontological reasoning. However, it is not known whether this distinction is as clear-cut…
Taking cues from the government: Heuristic Versus Systematic Processing in a Constitutional Referendum
One of the main criticisms of direct democracy is that it places excessive demands on voters. Are citizens competent enough to vote directly on policy issues? When stakes are high, do citizens mainly follow elites’ signals or do they decide in line with their issue preferences? This article addresses these questions in a multi-method setting by combining observational and experimental data from an original three-wave panel survey conducted during…
Hearing the Other Side? – Debiasing Political Opinions in the Case of the Scottish Independence Referendum
This study reports the effects of two debiasing strategies on the complexity of people’s thinking on a controversial policy issue – the question of Scottish independence. I start from the well-researched assumptions of motivated reasoning theory that individuals tend to protect their beliefs, are often not willing to hear the other side and fail to integrate contrasting arguments and different perspectives in their political considerations – alth…
Hearing the Other Side? – Debiasing Political Opinions in the Case of the Scottish Independence Referendum
This study reports the effects of two debiasing strategies on the complexity of people’s thinking on a controversial policy issue – the question of Scottish independence. I start from the well-researched assumptions of motivated reasoning theory that individuals tend to protect their beliefs, are often not willing to hear the other side and fail to integrate contrasting arguments and different perspectives in their political considerations – alth…
Justifications and Citizen Competence in Direct Democracy: A Multilevel Analysis
The criticism that ordinary voters lack the necessary competence to make policy decisions persists despite the growth, popularity and implementation of direct democratic instruments throughout the democratic world. This article presents a novel measure of voters’ levels of justification as a possible, policy-specific, conceptualization of citizen competence in direct democracy. Using a unique dataset based on thirty-four ballot decisions in Switz…
Taking cues from the government: Heuristic Versus Systematic Processing in a Constitutional Referendum
One of the main criticisms of direct democracy is that it places excessive demands on voters. Are citizens competent enough to vote directly on policy issues? When stakes are high, do citizens mainly follow elites’ signals or do they decide in line with their issue preferences? This article addresses these questions in a multi-method setting by combining observational and experimental data from an original three-wave panel survey conducted during…
How “Us” and “Them” Relates to Voting Behavior—Social Structure, Social Identities, and Electoral Choice
The last decades have seen the emergence of a divide pitting the new left against the far right in advanced democracies. We study how this universalism-particularism divide is crystallizing into a full-blown cleavage, complete with structural, political and identity elements. So far, little research exists on the identities that voters themselves perceive as relevant for drawing in- and out-group boundaries along this divide. Based on an original…
Principled or Pragmatic? Morality Politics in Direct Democracy
Political scientists often distinguish between two types of issues: moral versus non-moral issues or social-cultural versus economic issues. The implication is that these types of issues trigger different types of reasoning: while economic issues rely on pragmatic, consequentialist reasoning, social-cultural issues are said to be dependent on principles and deontological reasoning. However, it is not known whether this distinction is as clear-cut…
Who supports deliberative mini-publics in a context of direct democracy? The role of trust and dissatisfaction
Existing research on public perceptions of deliberative mini-publics focuses on contexts of representative democracy. We present the first study that explores citizen support for deliberative mini-publics in a polity characterised by extensive direct democracy, where citizen participation is already substantive and frequent. Empirically, we draw on a population survey featuring a conjoint experiment with 3700 respondents conducted in early 2023 i…
Law (6 works) · Political science (6 works) · Politics (6 works) · Economics (5 works) · Electoral Systems and Political Participation (5 works) · Law (5 works) · Psychology (5 works) · Social Psychology (5 works) · Democracy (4 works) · Positive economics (4 works)