This book provides a detailed analytic history of direct
legislation -- the initiative and referendum -- in California from
its origins in the late nineteenth century to the present day.
California was one of the first states to implement mechanisms for
direct legislation, and these mechanisms have been used with
growing frequency as the entire process has become professionalized
(from signature-gathering through fund-raising to legal challenge
and defense). The author studies this important political device in
terms of voter interest and behavior, its role in public issues,
and how it has affected the state's politics and government.
The book first analyzes how and why direct legislation came to
California, seeing it as a typical example of the disconnected
nature of progressive era reforms. It then studies selectively,
from among the 300 propositions that have been on California
ballots, those propositions that have been most relevant to the
major issues of their time, have generated the highest levels of
voter interest and participation, and have shaped the development
of state politics and government.
The author pays particular attention to the explosion of direct
legislation, in frequency and consequence, since the Proposition 13
"property tax revolution" of 1978. He also describes how
California's contemporary direct legislation experience -- from tax
rebellion to harsher criminal justice to controversial ethnic
issues -- has had national ramifications. The book concludes with a
careful analysis of the current state of the initiative and
referendum in California: voter attitudes toward the process, its
role as a "fourth branch" of government, and arguments for and
againstchanges in the procedure.
Based on extensive research in campaign documents, manuscript
collections, the contemporary press, and other primary sources, the
book also makes extensive use of voting data, public opinion polls,
and official filings of campaign expenditures. All in all, it is
the most comprehensive study ever made of a political process that
is used today in twenty-seven states.
General
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