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.
Your Blogger: Joe Mathews is an
User login
A National Referendum on Affirmative Action?
Well, not quite a national initiative. (Establishing such an initiative remains the cause of former Democratic presidential candidate, former Alaska Senator and former neighbor of your Blockbuster blogger Mike Gravel, but that’s a story for another day).
But five states -- Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Nebraska and Oklahoma -- are expected to vote this fall on the same ballot initiative: a measure banning affirmative action in public schools and other government projects. (They’ve got the signatures in Oklahoma, but not yet in the other four states)
Such multi-state initiatives have become a common political tactic -- and a big moneymaker for those in the blockbuster democracy biz. Opponents of same sex marriage and eminent domain rights have fielded quasi-national initiatives by qualifying the same measure in multiple states. Proponents of legislative term limits have done the same.
Ward Connerly, the Californian best known for sponsoring a successful anti-affirmative action initiative in his state a decade ago, is behind this. But it’s worth watching to see if the presidential candidates exploit these initiatives, or whether folks involved in these initiative campaigns exploit the presidential campaign. Colorado and Missouri are swing states in the presidential election. The measures’ profile is likely to rise if Obama is the Democratic nominee. The question you’ll hear debated is: Why does a country that may soon have a black president need affirmative action?
Post new comment