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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New Poll Shows Opportunity for Initiative Reform In California
The headlines from this morning's new Public Policy Institute of California poll all focus on Prop 8. But there isn't much surprising in those numbers. Evangelicals and Republicans overwhelmingly supported Prop 8. No kidding. The poll also documented the intensity gap between Prop 8's supporters (74 percent considered the outcome of Prop 8 very important) and its opponents (59 percent considered the outcome very important).
But the most important data from the survey has to do with the initiative process itself. Californians, in the poll, overwhelmingly support efforts to make the process more open and more flexible. That's significant because the state's arguably has the world's most rigid initiative process -- there's no procedure for withdrawing a qualified initiative, and laws enacted by initiative can only be changed by another vote of the people. PPIC found that seven in 10 voters say there is a need for changes in the process. And they favor many basic reforms: a system of review and revision to avoid legal issues and drafting errors (77 percent support in the poll), a time period in which the initiative sponsor and legislature try to reach a compromise solution (77 percent), a requirement that initiatives be the focus of televised debates (72 percent), more public disclosure of funding for signature gathering and initiative campaigns (84 percent). There's a political opportunity here, if someone would seize it.
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