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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Redistricting? Or Re-Sorting?
Just got my hands on a new book with an interesting new argument that has relevance for California's ongoing battle over redistricting reform.
In The Big Sort, Bill Bishop, a reporter in Texas, argues that Americans have sorted themselves into homogeneous communities, enclaves full of people with similar backgrounds, education and politics. If he's right, and he has a mountain of demographic evidence, redistricting reforms of the type offered in Gov. Schwarzenegger's current ballot initiative are likely to do very little to give us the kind of bipartisan politics and competitive elections California reformers seek.
It may be that, once again, it's time for California and reformers across the country to think bigger if they want political change. And it may simply be impossible to change politics by changing legislative districts. The real trick is to increase the quantity and quality of voter engagement, and to change the culture and make-up of communities. For its civic health, America needs more than redistricting, though that's the reform we're being fed over and over in the largest state. Tackling polarization is a big job, and hard to do by ballot initiative -- or to contemplate in a short blog post.
How to think bigger
Agreed, redistricting reform can accomplish very little, and it especially cannot make legislative bodies noticeably more representative. We do need to think bigger, and that means understanding proportional representation. See FairVote and New America's own Political Reform Program for an introduction.
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