CitizenPowerMagazine.net       July 2008

This is a well reasoned, well researched report on the issues and challenges to direct democracy as it now is institutionalized within the State of California.  The report is objective but far from neutral.  It is driven by the purpose of broadening and strengthening direct democracy.  It lauds what is working, identifies flaws, and suggests solutions to those flaws.  Advocates of direct democracy should read this book.  No excuses!  It’s free on the internet from the Center for Governmental Studies site: www.cgs.org


Key points from the introduction:

“California’s ballot initiative process has become a major catalyst of reform in the
state and the leading example of direct democracy in the nation. Ballot initiatives
bypass the normal institutions of representative government and place legislative power
directly in the hands of the people....”

“During the past three decades, Californians have used ballot initiatives to write, circulate, debate and adopt many of the state’s most important laws.... On many of these pressing issues, the elected state legislature and governor failed to act or respond in a manner that would satisfy interested parties.....”       

“When early 20th-century Progressives designed California’s ballot initiative
process, they envisioned that it would act as a safety valve, enabling citizens
to supplement the work of the legislature when it failed or refused to act.
Today’s initiative process, however, has outstripped this vision. An emerging
culture of democracy by initiative is transforming the electorate into a fourth
and new branch of state government. Voters now exercise many of the powers
traditionally reserved for the legislative branch of government (emphasis added).”
 
The report is broadly divided into two sections:
1. History, and
2. Issues and recommendations.
It also includes a brief section discussing implementation of the recommendations. 
 
The history section is delightful.  Here you can find how California came to have a very strong process for Initiative, Referendum, and Recall (IRR).    Also there’s substantial information on how IRR have been used over during the century (well almost) that they’ve been available in CA.   

The issues and recommendations section raises and discusses most of the problems with IRR that have been identified in the California experience.  Some of the issues are process or rules oriented.  To name a few: limiting judicial review, a non-partisan method for writing ballot descriptions, fair media access,  etc. etc.   Some of the issues are of a technical nature (like using the internet for voting), or of a philisophical nature (the influence of money on elections).  However, a substantial group of issues could be characterized as associated with the need for improved discourse and deliberation in shaping and approving initiatives.   The report is ‘cutting edge’ in this respect.  Serious advocates for direct democracy almost uniformly state that we need to improve current processes to allow for deeper discourse and deliberation .

Click here for the Table of Contents. 

I don’t necessarily agree with all the recommendations in this report. But I surely do agree with their perspective, and the importance of the issues that they raise.  Let me repeat: advocates of direct democracy should read this book.  No excuses!  It’s free on the internet from the Center for Governmental Studies site (www.cgs.org).