This Site Has Moved
The posts found here are still available for archival purposes and to avoid broken links, but comments are now turned off and there will be no future updates. For all the latest from New America, please go to www.NewAmerica.net
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
Dissolve the Legislature?
The Los Angeles Times praises a bizarre initiative, filed late last month, that would remove the entire legislature (and, in some cases, automatically remove the governor from office) if lawmakers don't pass a budget on time. In the event of a late budget, the governor and the lawmakers would not only be kicked out of office but they would be barred from returning to elected office for two years. There are all kinds of practical problems, but the Times seems to like the blast at the legislature. It's a symptom of the extreme frustration -- and powerlessness -- Californians are feeling as they watch their governor and legislature fiddle as the state runs out of cash.
It's a sign of the anger out there that this initiative is not the first time the notion of firing the whole legislature has come up. There's been persistent conversation among conservatives in California about coming up with some way to dissolve the legislature. But nothing's been filed, and my sources have been unwilling to go on the record.
- Login to post comments
Since the members of the
Since the members of the California Legislature are unable to resolve their differences and pass a state budget so this state can continue its business, the voters should rise up and vote ALL the present incumbents out of office and get new people in the positions. The people pay the salaries of these people and they do not seem to be able to do their job -- that of passing a budget on time. GET RID OF ALL OF THEM. We can even recall ALL of them. The people need to take control -- between the Govenor and the Legislature nothing is happening -- so let the people take over.