Californians have a love-hate relationship with direct democracy.
We love that we have the ability to set the politicians straight, either by getting a jump on them on the next big issue or reversing course when we think they’ve made a big mistake.
But we’re not wild about reading through all those damn initiatives that appear on the ballot every year, or sorting through the claims and counter claims of the interest groups that sponsor and oppose them. And we don’t like the way that big money pays to get most measures on the ballot and then underwrites the campaigns.
Those are among the findings of recent research by the independent Public Policy Institute of California, a non-partisan think tank which also suggested a few reforms.
Ironically, one of those ideas is to increase the role the Legislature plays in shaping ballot measures. Voters overwhelmingly approve of this idea, even though they relish the opportunity to overrule the politicians. That might seem like a contradiction. But the voters seem to hope that by bringing the Legislature into the game we can get them to do the right thing without the need for an initiative campaign.
One way to do this is to revive the idea of the indirect initiative, in which sponsors of an idea collect a certain number of signatures and then present the proposal to the Legislature. If it passes, the campaign ends there. If the Legislature balks, the measure proceeds to the next ballot.
Another, less ambitious approach would be to simply let the Legislature review ballot measures and suggest changes, perhaps limited to drafting errors or constitutional impairments. The authors could then adopt those changes and move on with their ballot campaign, or reject them.
The second suggested reform is to increase transparency when it comes to the backers of ballot initiatives. Some ideas: identify funders on petitions, in paid advertising and in the official ballot guide.
The third reform is to re-engage citizens in the initiative process. Remember, the idea of the ballot measure was to give citizens more power in the legislative process. But other than the vote, much of that power has been ceded to the same interest groups that lobby the Legislature full time. Now they also lobby the people.
Among the possibilities: giving volunteer-only signature campaigns more time to gather names to qualify a measure for the ballot; asking voters to re-affirm their decisions on ballot measures after the have been law for a few years; and establishing a citizens’ commission to review ballot measures and make recommendations on the ballot.
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