Early in the twentieth century, many American states began experimenting with direct democracy. Direct democracyóprimarily the initiative deviceóallows groups to place directly before voters laws affecting taxation, spending, term limits, school choice, gay rights, immigration, and numerous other state issues. Ballot initiatives were expected to allow citizens the option of getting around legislators who were seen as beholden to wealthy interests; early defenders of the process argued it would make state politics more responsive to the public will, and more responsible. Citizens as Legislators examines direct democracy in America at the end of the twentieth century to see if it has lived up to these expectations.
The seven contributors to this volume use the American experience with direct democracy to investigate some fundamental questions of politics: Can modern democracy have direct citizen participation in legislation? What are the consequences of more (or less) direct citizen access to government? Are policy outcomes different under direct versus representative government?
The authors look at the context of initiative campaigns and detail the rise of the modern initiative campaign industry. They examine how campaigns affect voters and how voters deal with the array of decisions they face in direct democracy states. They go on to explain why certain policy outcomes are different in direct democracy states.
Shaun Bowler is an associate professor of political science at the University of California, Riverside. Todd Donovan is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at Western Washington University. He and Shaun Bowler are coauthors of the forthcoming Demanding Choices: Opinion and Voting in Direct Democracy. Caroline J. Tolbert has published articles in the American Journal of Politcal Science.
1998 Political Science
256 pp. 6 x 9
$19.95s paper 0-8142-0778-2
$50.00s cloth 0-8142-0777-4
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