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About 220 years ago, America's "Founding Fathers" got together and wrote an interesting little document dubbed the "Constitution." It is a flexible document that has allowed us to move from an agrarian economy with heavy usage of slave labor to the modern bustling nation that we see today. In case you failed to notice, the signs of democracy are all around these days. This great document, which despite the Bush Administration's best efforts, has stood the test of time. But notice what's missing from the Constitution: Direct Democracy.
Heck, the Founders didn't even want Senators to be directly elected, that didn't come until the early 20th Century. But here in California we can thank the railroads and Hiram Johnson for installing Direct Democracy in some pseudo-Athenian experiment. Johnson intended the ballot initiative to be a way the "little guy" to trump the moneyed interest (at the time, the railroads). The trouble is, it hasn't worked. Ever. It has never been a very good means of the grassroots triumphing over anybody really. It has now become a full-employment mechanism for political types (um, thanks Hiram) and a means of bypassing the traditional means of getting a law passed: the legislature.
In case you doubt the role of money in initiative politics, there's this story in the Bee:
Despite a 2000 law meant to curb the size of checks California politicians could collect from deep-pocketed interest groups, many lawmakers are skirting those limits by soliciting funds for ballot accounts. In many cases, the money is arriving in increments of tens, and even hundreds, of thousands of dollars.
The ballot accounts are legal and can be created without a specific ballot measure in mind. Donations to them can be limitless. The only difference is that elected officials can't spend the money directly on their own re-election campaigns. (SacBee 5/5/08)
Last week, the Center for Governmental Studies (CGS) released a report on the initiative process that recommended some pretty substantial changes, but the question is out there, is the initiative system worth saving?
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