Initiative And Referendum Essay ⋆ Political Science Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

The initiative, a type of direct democracy, allows voters by petition to place one or more constitutional and statutory propositions on the referendum ballot. Propositions also may be placed on the referendum ballot automatically by a constitution (illustrated by the question of convening a constitutional convention placed on the New York State ballot every twenty years) and by legislative bodies.

The initiative dates to 1715 when the Massachusetts General Court authorized voters by petition to require the town selectmen to include specific articles in the warrant (fixed agenda) calling a town meeting. Several post-1830 Swiss cantonal constitutions granted voters authority to place constitutional questions on the ballot by the “imperative petition” of voters. The new federal constitution of Switzerland in 1848 required all cantons to adopt the device that also could be used to place proposed amendments to the national constitution on the referendum ballot. The Vaud cantonal constitution in 1845 authorized placement of proposed statutes on the ballot by petition.

The 1883 California State Legislature enacted a law on incorporation of municipal corporations to implement the home rule article in the 1879 constitution. The law provided for the placement of the question of incorporating a city on the referendum ballot by a petition signed by one hundred voters. Agrarian discontent in the post–civil war period gave birth to the National People’s Party (Populist), which at its first convention in 1892 adopted a platform calling for adoption of the initiative and protest (petition) referendum on recently enacted laws. In 1898, South Dakota voters approved an initiative-protest referendum constitutional amendment, and San Francisco freeholders adopted a new city-county charter providing for both devices. Currently in the United States, twenty-three state constitutions and the Utah Code authorize state voters to use the device, and a statute or local charter authorizes voters in many local governments to use the device. The direct initiative may be used to place a proposed amendment proposition on the referendum ballot in sixteen states and to enact statutes in seven states provided the required number and distribution of signatures are certified. The indirect initiative, employed in nine states, requires voters to collect a specified number of certified signatures before the proposition is referred to the legislature. Its failure to enact the proposition during a stipulated time period results in the proposition’s being placed on the referendum ballot. Additional signatures must be collected to place a state proposition on the ballot in Massachusetts, Ohio, and Utah if the legislature fails to enact the proposition. Massachusetts and Mississippi are the only states with constitutions authorizing the indirect constitutional initiative. The constitutions of Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, and Washington authorize the legislature to place a substitute proposition on the ballot.

Proponents argue that the initiative empowers voters to enact provisions in the face of an unresponsive legislative body beholden to special interests, thereby making it more representative, and that it is a voter civic education device. Opponents contend the initiative authorizes a minority of the voters to make binding decisions, overburdens voters with propositions, and allows special interest groups to achieve their goals.

The referendum, a type of direct democracy allowing voters to make policy decisions, originated in the fifteenth century in the Landsgemeinde in several Swiss communes that formed leagues and authorized voters by referendum to accept or reject league policy decisions. The Massachusetts Bay Colony held a referendum in 1640, and voters ratified the first Massachusetts constitution in a referendum in 1780. By 1860, the constitutional referendum and the statutory referendum in most states relative to the issuance of full faith and credit bonds had become established. The term plebiscite is used to describe primarily a nation’s voters deciding a question of great public importance.

The UK parliament is premised on the leadership-feedback theory positing voters elect leaders to make all laws after receiving citizen feedback on proposed laws. In consequence, a nationwide referendum was not held until 1975 when voters approved joining the European Community (now European Union). Other parliamentary nations with written constitutions, such as Ireland and Italy, hold periodic referenda on proposed amendments and on questions such as the enlargement of the union. Parliament is free to place propositions on the ballot at any time.

A constitution or charter may require a periodic mandatory referendum on a specified question and mandatory voter approval prior to initiation of action on certain matters, or it may be permissive on most other subjects. A local option referendum allows local government voters to decide whether they wish to adopt a specific state law. The petition or protest referendum originated in Switzerland, was promoted by Populists and Progressives in the United States, and is enshrined in the constitutions of twenty-three states and the Utah Code in the United States and numerous local governments. The device allows voters by petition during a sixty to ninety-day period to suspend implementation of a newly enacted statute or ordinance until a referendum is held to determine whether the law should be repealed. The device is not used often to repeal state laws, but its use is more common in local governments. It should be noted that the initiative may be used to repeal a state law by referendum.

Bibliography:

Bone, Hugh A. The Initiative and the Referendum. 2d ed. New York: National Municipal League, 1975.
Boyle, James. The Initiative and Referendum: Its Folly, Fallacies, and Failure. 3d ed. Columbus, Ohio: A.H. Smythe, 1912.
Butler, David, and Austin Ranney. Referendums around the World: The Growing Use of Direct Democracy. Washington, D.C.: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, 1994.
Cronin,Thomas. Direct Democracy:The Politics of Initiative, Referendum, and Recall. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1989.
Guidebook to Direct Democracy in Switzerland and Beyond. Amsterdam: Initiative and Referendum Institute, 2005.
Kobach, Kris W. The Referendum: Direct Democracy in Switzerland. Aldershot, UK: Dartmouth, 1993.
Oberholtzer, Ellis P. The Referendum in America Together with Some Chapters on the Initiative and the Recall. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1900.
Stoddart, Jane T. Against the Referendum. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1916.
Zimmerman, Joseph F.The Initiative: Citizen Law-making. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 1999.
The Recall:Tribunal of the People. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 1997.
The Referendum:The People Decide Public Policy. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2001.

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