ABSTRACT
There was a time when voters needed some reassurance before they strayed from their pack. When the proto-fascist Austrian Heimatschutz party launched a popular initiative against a state-sponsored bank bailout in 1931, it publicly declared that the petition “may be signed by everybody regardless of his party position” (Tages-Post, 1931). Party affiliations were iron-clad back then, and supporting an initiative of the political adversary was considered a treacherous act by many. But ironically, the Heimatschutz initiative encountered its most vociferous opponents from regional branches of the far-right movement, while being supported by the rising Nazi party. Even in that era, political parties had their issues with direct democracy.
