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Articles 1 - 16 of 16
Full-Text Articles in Law
Marriage On The Ballot: An Analysis Of Same-Sex Marriage Referendums In North Carolina, Minnesota, And Washington During The 2012 Elections, Craig M. Burnett, Mathew D. Mccubbins
Marriage On The Ballot: An Analysis Of Same-Sex Marriage Referendums In North Carolina, Minnesota, And Washington During The 2012 Elections, Craig M. Burnett, Mathew D. Mccubbins
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
More D (Deliberation) For California’S Dd (Direct Democracy): Enhancing Voter Understanding And Promoting Deliberation Through Streamlined Notice-And-Comment Procedures, Glenn Smith
Glenn C. Smith
This article seeks to enhance public consideration of the pros and cons of streamlining California's informal-administrative-rulemaking procedures for reforming the state's direct democracy. To provide a concrete focus for discussion and quick adoption, Appendix I includes proposed amendments to existing California statutory provisions. This article provides a context for considering the proposed legislation by elaborating on five questions: Why Deliberation? (Part I): In this Part, the Article makes the case, both on the substantive merits and on practical political grounds, for focusing on deliberation-enhancement as the best "next wave" of initiative reform.8 Why the Administrative Model? (Part II): This Part …
Solving The ‘Initiatory Construction’ Puzzle (And Improving Direct Democracy) By Appropriate Refocusing On Sponsor Intent, Glenn Smith
Glenn C. Smith
This Article synthesizes and critiques a dozen years of scholarship about judicial construction of legislation passed by voter initiative. The Article then makes a comprehensive case for an alternative approach: an appropriately enhanced focus on the intent of initiative sponsors. More specifically, the Article validates, through analysis of recent California decisions, a longstanding scholarly consensus that the prevailing judicial search for "the intent of the voters" is seriously flawed. The Article provides the first synthesis to date of reform proposals offered by "initiatory-construction" scholars; the discussion contends that these proposals collectively fail four key evaluation criteria. Building on the 2003 …
Legislative Reform Of California’S Direct Democracy: A Field Guide To Recent Efforts, Glenn Smith
Legislative Reform Of California’S Direct Democracy: A Field Guide To Recent Efforts, Glenn Smith
Glenn C. Smith
This Article seeks to enhance the ability of California-initiative process reformers to gain wisdom from the past by briefly, yet comprehensively, reviewing recent proposals considered in the California legislature. Specifically, this "field guide" to initiative reform seeks to orient interested travelers to relevant California legislative exertions from 1997 to the present.' Although our orientation is informed by the entire range of legislative proposals within the dataset, we give special focus to bills proposing to enhance initiative-process deliberation-the ability of voters to understand and meaningfully deliberate about initiative proposals. We also concentrate on two categories of initiative-reform legislation during the period: …
Financing Direct Democracy: Revisiting The Research On Campaign Spending And Citizen Initiatives, John M. De Figueiredo, Chang Ho Ji, Thad Kousser
Financing Direct Democracy: Revisiting The Research On Campaign Spending And Citizen Initiatives, John M. De Figueiredo, Chang Ho Ji, Thad Kousser
Faculty Scholarship
The conventional view in the direct democracy literature is that spending against a measure is more effective than spending in favor of a measure, but the empirical results underlying this conclusion have been questioned by recent research. We argue that the conventional finding is driven by the endogenous nature of campaign spending: initiative proponents spend more when their ballot measure is likely to fail. We address this endogeneity by using an instrumental variables approach to analyze a comprehensive dataset of ballot propositions in California from 1976 to 2004. We find that both support and opposition spending on citizen initiatives have …
Legislative Reform Of California’S Direct Democracy: A Field Guide To Recent Efforts, Glenn C. Smith
Legislative Reform Of California’S Direct Democracy: A Field Guide To Recent Efforts, Glenn C. Smith
Faculty Scholarship
This Article seeks to enhance the ability of California-initiative process reformers to gain wisdom from the past by briefly, yet comprehensively, reviewing recent proposals considered in the California legislature. Specifically, this "field guide" to initiative reform seeks to orient interested travelers to relevant California legislative exertions from 1997 to the present.' Although our orientation is informed by the entire range of legislative proposals within the dataset, we give special focus to bills proposing to enhance initiative-process deliberation-the ability of voters to understand and meaningfully deliberate about initiative proposals. We also concentrate on two categories of initiative-reform legislation during the period: …
More D (Deliberation) For California’S Dd (Direct Democracy): Enhancing Voter Understanding And Promoting Deliberation Through Streamlined Notice-And-Comment Procedures, Glenn Smith
Faculty Scholarship
This article seeks to enhance public consideration of the pros and cons of streamlining California's informal-administrative-rulemaking procedures for reforming the state's direct democracy. To provide a concrete focus for discussion and quick adoption, Appendix I includes proposed amendments to existing California statutory provisions. This article provides a context for considering the proposed legislation by elaborating on five questions: Why Deliberation? (Part I): In this Part, the Article makes the case, both on the substantive merits and on practical political grounds, for focusing on deliberation-enhancement as the best "next wave" of initiative reform.8 Why the Administrative Model? (Part II): This Part …
Conditions On Taking The Initiative: The First Amendment Implications Of Subject Matter Restrictions On Ballot Initiatives, Anna Skiba-Crafts
Conditions On Taking The Initiative: The First Amendment Implications Of Subject Matter Restrictions On Ballot Initiatives, Anna Skiba-Crafts
Michigan Law Review
Nearly half of U.S. states offer a ballot initiative process that citizens may use to pass legislation or constitutional amendments by a popular vote. Some states, however, impose substantive restrictions on the types of initiatives citizens may submit to the ballot for a vote-precluding, for example, initiatives lowering drug penalties or initiatives related to religion. Circuit courts are split on whether and how such restrictions implicate the First Amendment. This Note argues that-rather than limiting "expressive conduct" protected only minimally by the First Amendment, or limiting pure conduct that does not garner any First Amendment protectionsubject matter restrictions on ballot …
Researching Initiatives And Referendums: A Guide For Florida, Elizabeth Outler
Researching Initiatives And Referendums: A Guide For Florida, Elizabeth Outler
UF Law Faculty Publications
In Florida, direct democracy at the state level consists entirely of the initiative method of amending the State constitution. This constitutional provision was partly a response to the State’s history of obstacles to affording equitable legislative representation to all its citizens, a struggle with roots dating back to the Reconstruction era. The State constitution, governing statutes and regulations, and the Division of Elections Web site serve as the primary sources of information and guidance for those interested in the process of amending the State constitution by citizen-sponsored initiative.
When Voters Make Laws: How Direct Democracy Is Shaping American Cities, Elizabeth Garrett, Mathew D. Mccubbins
When Voters Make Laws: How Direct Democracy Is Shaping American Cities, Elizabeth Garrett, Mathew D. Mccubbins
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Foreword, Richard B. Collins
Solving The ‘Initiatory Construction’ Puzzle (And Improving Direct Democracy) By Appropriate Refocusing On Sponsor Intent, Glenn Smith
Faculty Scholarship
This Article synthesizes and critiques a dozen years of scholarship about judicial construction of legislation passed by voter initiative. The Article then makes a comprehensive case for an alternative approach: an appropriately enhanced focus on the intent of initiative sponsors. More specifically, the Article validates, through analysis of recent California decisions, a longstanding scholarly consensus that the prevailing judicial search for "the intent of the voters" is seriously flawed. The Article provides the first synthesis to date of reform proposals offered by "initiatory-construction" scholars; the discussion contends that these proposals collectively fail four key evaluation criteria. Building on the 2003 …
Can Direct Democracy Be Made Deliberative?, Ethan J. Leib
Can Direct Democracy Be Made Deliberative?, Ethan J. Leib
Faculty Scholarship
Every election cycle a great number of citizens take to the polls to vote on public policy matters directly. Direct democracy has problems. And an account of deliberative democracy—far from being a source to critique direct democracy—might provide a solution. I have three goals here. First, I hope to identify some problems with the mechanisms of direct democracy that most states and many cities throughout the country employ: the initiative and the referendum. Next, I will offer a potential solution to these institutional problems using aspects of the theory of deliberative democracy, a theory often marshaled to undermine direct democracy. …
Social Choice, Crypto-Initiaives, And Policymaking By Direct Democracy, Thad Kousser, Mathew D. Mccubbins
Social Choice, Crypto-Initiaives, And Policymaking By Direct Democracy, Thad Kousser, Mathew D. Mccubbins
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
When Does Government Limit The Impact Of Voter Initiatives?, Elisabeth R. Gerber
When Does Government Limit The Impact Of Voter Initiatives?, Elisabeth R. Gerber
Faculty Scholarship
Citizens use the initiative process to make new laws. Many winning initiatives, however, are altered or ignored after Election Day. We examine why this is, paying particular attention to several widely-ignored properties of the post-election phase of the initiative process. One such property is the fact that initiative implementation can require numerous governmental actors to comply with an initiative’s policy instructions. Knowing such properties, the question then becomes: When do governmental actors comply with winning initiatives? We clarify when compliance is full, partial, or not at all. Our findings provide a template for scholars and observers to better distinguish cases …
How Democratic Are Initiatives?, Richard B. Collins
How Democratic Are Initiatives?, Richard B. Collins
Publications
No abstract provided.