Ballot Access News has a handy overview of several proposed constitutional amendments, now in the California legislature, to reinstitute the indirect initiative. Before a constitutional revision in the 1960s, California permitted voters to gather signatures as a method of putting an idea before the legislature.

I tend to think the indirect initiative is a waste of time. The process was almost never used before the 1960s, and it would not be used much even if any of these amendments were to be approved by the legislature and voters (All face uphill battles). Why would an initiative sponsor submit to a process that permitted the legislature to change her proposed statute or constitutional amendment?

Over at Fox & Hounds Daily, Joel Fox and I are debating the wisdom of permitting legislatures to add a counter-proposal to each initiative that appears on a ballot. In this piece, Fox criticizes legislation in Oregon to do just that. And in response, I describe why I like the Oregon legislation and think counter proposals would strengthen direct democracy.

In the United States, ballot initiatives usually appear "naked" on the ballot. That is to say, voters decide yes or no on a particular statute or constitutional amendment, and that's it. There's only one choice.

Most of the rest of the world doesn't do things this way. In Switzerland, where modern direct democracy was invented, voters get more of a choice. They not only can vote yes or no on an initiative, but they also get to pass a judgment on a legislative counter-proposal to each initiative. And they can decide which of the two meausures-- the initiative or the counter-proposal--takes effect in the event that both are approved by voters.

But change may be coming in Oregon. The possibility of a counter-proposal is part of state legislation, now being debated, that would require that initiatives go to the legislature first before they appear on the ballot. If approved, the legislation would give lawmakers the option of approving the initiative, doing nothing and letting the initiative go on the ballot, or offering a counter-proposal.