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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There Is No Budget Deal Until California Voters Say OK
Want more proof that the initiative process is too powerful in California? All the recent talk about lawmakers reaching a budget deal is bunk. The deal, even if it passes, requires the voters to sign off on multiple ballot measures later this year. That's right -- California simply can't handle a budget emergency without a vote of the people.
Details have not been released, but I count at least five separate ballot measures that would be needed to complete this deal: 1. a measure authorizing the modernizing of the lottery and borrowing against future funds. 2. the approval of some sort of new spending limit that Republicans insisted upon in negotiations. 3. Changes to the state's education funding formula. 4. A measure permitting the state to raid money that voters approved for early childhood programs and 5. A measure permitting the state to raid money that voters approved for mental health programs.
Given the extreme costs of delays by the legislature, and their inability to do much without the voters OK, the real question is: why bother having a legislature at all?
Re: Budget Deal
Joe, I think you just made the argument why initiatives should play a role in politics. In all of these scenarios the legislature has to get our permission to sign off on all these "raids" as you call them. Raiding the lottery, mental health services, education, and early childhood programs. Seriously the politicians have proven time and time again they won't hold to their words. Look at the federal level, if it didn't have the power to print money, it would have collapsed decades ago. Politicians make promises they know they can't keep. Initiatives are final. Voted in, they are the law. We get finality. Not broken promises. And even then they still get challenged in court.
Democracy does not have pre-described outcome like the polit bureau. It is a what the people want at a point in time. Times change and attitudes change. This generation may rid itself of Prop 13, traditional marriage, 2/3 votes requirements and vote in higher taxes. This is the voice of democracy. Whether I like it or not. I as a conservative will see these go away in next decade or so, but that is what we have to live by. Or move.
CA Budget Crisis
If I did my job the way the California legislators have carried out theirs, I would be fired! And so should they be. This is not another stupid, let's have a conversation over a Starbucks. This is about home foreclosures, job losses, and all of the other stresses that Californians have dealt with for 18 months while this narcissistic legislature diddles. It's enough. If I let my company down - the way these representatives have let this state and her citizens down - I would be fired. So would you. So sould they. Let's not even stop long enough to ask that old tired question: "Are you a Republican or a Democrat?"
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