About this Blog
Direct democracy -- the Switzerland-inspired system of initiatives, referenda and recalls that allows voters to make and repeal laws in 24 states -- is poorly understood. It isn’t even very direct. Direct democracy has become blockbuster democracy: a half-billion-dollar international industry of signature gatherers, consultants, and election lawyers who use ballot measures less as a method of making law and more as a tool of mega-communications to boost some politicians, hurt others, and supplement lobbying campaigns.
Blockbuster democracy is a decentralized business that practices wide-open politics. This blog aims to provide a center of news, analysis and conversation for and about the industry. We will report from blockbuster democracy’s capital -- California -- but we’ll monitor ballot measures from across the country and around the globe.
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California Round Up, Now Free Of Trans Fats
THE GROWING BALLOT: Friend of the blog Robert Greene has this excellent update on the rapidly expanding California ballot. The voters have done their part through signature gathering; now the legislature adds its own measure to the ballot.
HIGH SPEED RAIL: The much delayed bond measure establishing a high-speed rail system in California will finally appear on this November's ballot. But the legislature can't reach a compromise on oversight for the funding.
INTERESTING LOGIC: Steve Maviglio, Democratic strategist and aide to Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, pens a column arguing that electing more moderates to the legislature would be bad for the budget process. His argument is that moderates would feel so much political heat that they'd be unlikely to compromise. Hmmm. Perhaps Steve would be right. But we do know for a fact that partisans of the left and the right, protected by a gerrymander, have little interest in compromise. (That's how the current legislature works -- or, more accurately, doesn't). I am skeptical about the depth of redistricting reform's iimpact, and share Steve's view that the 2/3 super-majority for tax increases and budgets is a much bigger part of the state's problem. But it's hard to see how moderate legislators would be less likely to compromise than our current hyper-partisans. Looking at the sad state of our current budget talks, one could argue that it might be worth trying something different.
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