Author: Kenneth P. Miller
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521765641
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 287
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Book Description
This book analyzes the conflict between two rising powers - direct democracy and the courts. Many voter-approved initiatives are challenged in court after the election and many are invalidated. The resulting conflict between the people and the courts threatens to produce a popular backlash against judges and raises profound questions about the proper scope of popular sovereignty and judicial power in a constitutional system.
Author: Henry S. Noyes
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781611632767
Category : Recall
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
To access the 2014-15 supplement, click here. The Law Of Direct Democracy is the first casebook on direct democracy. This book uses state and federal judicial opinions, the text of ballot initiatives, statutes and constitutional provisions to compare and contrast the various state laws that govern the ballot initiative, the referendum and the recall. This book also contemplates the role of interest groups, voters, courts and elected officials and examines their ability to utilize, influence and limit the initiative process. It provides students and instructors both the information they need to learn the law of direct democracy and the tools to pursue further inquiry on discrete topics of interest. "Henry Noyes' comprehensive and detailed tome The Law of Direct Democracy is a thorough and meticulous study of all the practical issues pertaining to direct democracy. Limited to the US--where roughly half of the states have provisions for direct democracy--Noyes cites and analyses the major court cases and provides extracts to the major documents debating and challenging direct democracy, such as the Federalist Papers. The book gives a sober--and realistic--overview of the pros and cons of having a system that allows the voters to vote directly on laws. This book is not a polemic and nor does it take sides. It merely presents the facts and the 'law of direct democracy'. This is a valuable book and the sections on the 'recall' especially will provide interesting examples--and ammunition--for those who claim that the recall would lead to political chaos. This book may not become a run-away bestseller, but it is a valuable volume for those who have a scholarly interest in referendums." -- Matt Qvortrup, Political Studies Review "The current volume gathers together many of the 'hot topics' with respect to direct democracy in the United States. It is an eye-opening account (truncated for space reasons) of all the court cases that make up case law for direct democracy.... For those wanting to pursue a political voice that grows louder each year, this volume provides a useful filter to those issues. The summaries of the cases are easy to read and informative..." -- Mark Y. Herring, American Reference Books Annual 2015 and ARBAonline "The law relating to initiatives and referendums, though of great importance, is seldom taught in law schools and seldom studied by lawyers. With his excellent casebook on direct democracy, Professor Noyes has filled an important need." -- Dr. Joseph R. Grodin, Distinguished Emeritus Professor of Law, UC Hastings College of the Law; Former Associate Justice, California Supreme Court
Author: Kenneth P. Miller
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780511651892
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 288
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Book Description
This book analyzes the conflict between two rising powers - direct democracy and the courts.
Author: Mathew Manweller
Publisher: Academica Press,LLC
ISBN: 1930901976
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 268
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Book Description
This research monograph analyses and describes how initiative elites react to the high level of judicial review of their successfully passed ballot measures and why those reactions are failing to decrease the number of judicial nullifications. For the last 30 years, state ballot measures that have passed and been challenged in court have been nullified at the ration of 1 out of 2. As a result of a 50% rate of nullification initiative elites have benefited from institutional learning and have become more sophisticated and politically savvy. However the nullification have hardly plummeted. The work explains why and posits other legal and political actions that may be possible for the ballot winners and their supporters.
Author: Michael N Mautner, Ph. D.
Publisher: Legacy Books
ISBN: 0473068559
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 224
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Book Description
All people share the basic needs of survival and the social drives embedded in human nature. Survival demands sustenance, safety and procreation; and the social drives demand dignity, justice and freedom. These shared values emerge when the common will is distilled from the diverse wills of people. Where this communal wisdom governs, human dignity will be honored and our survival will be secure. This book describes a system of pure democracy where all major decision are done through referendums and statistically meaningful public opinion polls. The policies are then executed by expert agencies with oversight from public policy panels. The book also describes transition to Direct Democracy through Representatives pledged to "I shall vote in Congress or Parliament according to the instructions of my constituents."
Author: Shauna Reilly
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0415537274
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 256
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Book Description
Experts assess the connection between characteristics of petitioners, how they are able to influence their communities beyond the ballot box and how large an influence they are on specific areas of policy.
Author: John G. Matsusaka
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691199744
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 312
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Book Description
How referendums can diffuse populist tensions by putting power back into the hands of the people Propelled by the belief that government has slipped out of the hands of ordinary citizens, a surging wave of populism is destabilizing democracies around the world. As John Matsusaka reveals in Let the People Rule, this belief is based in fact. Over the past century, while democratic governments have become more efficient, they have also become more disconnected from the people they purport to represent. The solution Matsusaka advances is familiar but surprisingly underused: direct democracy, in the form of referendums. While this might seem like a dangerous idea post-Brexit, there is a great deal of evidence that, with careful design and thoughtful implementation, referendums can help bridge the growing gulf between the government and the people. Drawing on examples from around the world, Matsusaka shows how direct democracy can bring policies back in line with the will of the people (and provide other benefits, like curbing corruption). Taking lessons from failed processes like Brexit, he also describes what issues are best suited to referendums and how they should be designed, and he tackles questions that have long vexed direct democracy: can voters be trusted to choose reasonable policies, and can minority rights survive majority decisions? The result is one of the most comprehensive examinations of direct democracy to date—coupled with concrete, nonpartisan proposals for how countries can make the most of the powerful tools that referendums offer. With a crisis of representation hobbling democracies across the globe, Let the People Rule offers important new ideas about the crucial role the referendum can play in the future of government.
Author: Chris Micheli
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781792466786
Category : Direct democracy
Languages : en
Pages : 566
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Book Description
This casebook examines the initiative, referendum and recall. In each of the three sections of the casebook, we begin with an overview of the relevant law (both constitutional and statutory), followed by an explanation of the process, and then look at data provided by the California Secretary of State. There are a myriad of court decisions in California addressing legal issues that have arisen over the more than one hundred years these forms of direct democracy have existed in this state. The court decisions used in this casebook were chosen because they help explain the relevant law and provide a helpful analysis of the legal issues the court faced. After each decision, as well as with several sections of the explanatory materials, there are notes and questions provided to stimulate further thought and discussion of key legal issues raised. -- from publisher.
Author: Matt Qvortrup
Publisher: Manchester University Press
ISBN: 152610279X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 210
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Book Description
Should citizens be allowed to propose legislation? Should they even be allowed to recall politicians if they do not live up to their expectations? These questions and many others form the subject of this timely book. In addition to presenting an up to date review of the empirical literature, Direct democracy provides a survey of the political philosophers who have theorised about this subject. It is the central tenet in the book that the demand for direct democracy is a consequence of the demand for more consumer choices. Like consumers want individualised products, so voters want individualised and bespoke policies. Described by the BBC as "The world’s leading expert on referendums", the author, Matt Qvortrup, draws on his experience as a political advisor to the US State Department, as well as his extensive academic knowledge of direct democracy.
Author: Richard J. Ellis
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 280
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Book Description
It is becoming common in many states: the opportunity to reclaim government from politicians by simply signing a petition to put an initiative on the ballot and then voting for it. Isn't this what America ought to be about? Proposition 13 in California's 1978 election paved the way; the past decade saw more than 450 such actions; now in many states direct legislation dominates the political agenda and defines political—and public-opinion. While this may appear to be democracy in action, Richard Ellis warns us that the initiative process may be putting democracy at risk. In Democratic Delusions he offers a critical analysis of the statewide initiative process in the United States, challenging readers to look beyond populist rhetoric and face political reality. Through engaging prose and illuminating (and often amusing) anecdotes, Ellis shows readers the "dark side" of direct democracy—specifically the undemocratic consequences that result from relying too heavily on the initiative process. He provides historic context to the development of initiatives-from their Populist and Progress roots to their accelerated use in recent decades-and shows the differences between initiative processes in the states that use them. Most important, while acknowledging the positive contribution of initiatives, Ellis shows that there are reasons to use them carefully and sparingly: ill-considered initiatives can subvert normal legislative checks and balances, undermine the deliberative process, and even threaten the rights of minority groups through state-sanctioned measures. Today's initiative process, Ellis warns, is dominated not by ordinary citizens but by politicians, perennial activists, wealthy interests, and well-oiled machines. Deliberately misleading language on the ballot confuses voters and influences election results. And because many initiatives are challenged in the courts, these ostensibly democratic procedures have now put legislation in the hands of the judiciary. Throughout his book he cites examples drawn from states in which initiatives are used intensively—Oregon, California, Colorado, Washington, and Arizona-as well as others in which their use has increased in recent years. Undoing mistakes enacted by initiative can be more difficult than correcting errors of legislatures. As voters prepare to consider the host of initiatives that will be offered in the 2002 elections, this book can help put those efforts in a clearer light. Democratic Delusions urges moderation, attempting to teach citizens to be at least as skeptical of the initiative process as they are of the legislative process—and to appreciate the enduring value of the representative institutions they seek to circumvent.
