Low turnout happens exactly because there is no transparent, understandable and visible feedback between voters decision and government actions. Direct democracy provides this kind of feedback: all laws or measures voted in have to be implemented in specific timeframes, and reported back to voters. It is OK to have 10% turnout for a measure that affects only 10% of population (our laws are fine-grained), for more polarizing issues the turnout is usually much higher.
> Low turnout happens exactly because there is no transparent, understandable and visible feedback between voters decision and government actions
That’s an interesting thesis, but it’s not at all substantiated. Switzerland may have a better voter turnout than LA city council elections, but it has some of the worst turnout in the OECD[0]. If I was going to take a complete guess at the reason (as you did), I’d say it’s a cultural thing more than anything else (outside the influence of compulsory voting laws).
