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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'Think Like a Philosopher And Write Like a Farmer'
That's the motto of the In-House Drafting Committee, one of the most interesting government offices I've come across. The committee handles the official translation of all legislation -- including initiatives and referenda -- in Switzerland. It's a crucial role in a country with three major national languages -- German, French and Italian. They do not have a light hand--they do serious editing for clarity and for constitutionality. The office has an interesting collection of people: historians, political scientists, linguists and two-- count 'em, two -- theologians. (They're considered particularly good on questions of ethics, morality and the original meaning of texts).
It's an article of faith that Switzerland's diversity, particularly in language, is both a challenge and an advantage for the country's democracy. "Ideas tend to be expressed more clearly when they have to be translated," one staffer explained to me. I asked if there is often resistance to the changes they suggest in ballot initiatives filed by citizens. The answer: no. The committee essentially provides legislative drafting to initiative sponsors. The initiative writers can reject the suggestions of the drafting committee, but they rarely do. The committee eliminates ambiguity, make initiatives shorter, and make the terms so clear that their meaning will be clear in three languages. That's what it means to think like a philosopher and write like a farmer.
Time is partly what makes direct democracy work
The facts that initiative sponsors usually agree to drafting changes, and that Parliament doesn't regard citizen initiatives as the enemy (as legislatures often do in the U.S.) is a testament to how giving citizens real responsibility (since 1891 for federal initiatives) eventually irons out many government problems.
It's because U.S. citizens can only watch as Congress commits act after act of "government AGAINST the people" -from NAFTA to the bailout -that Congress is the most unpopular institution in U.S. history. A commenter in the Boulder Daily Camera here suggested executing 1/10 of Congress to get the rest to heel. How much better are national initiatives than that! Boulder is the most educated city in the U.S.
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