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Full-Text Articles in Jurisprudence
Rescuing Maryland Tort Law: A Tribute To Judge Sally Adkins, Donald G. Gifford
Rescuing Maryland Tort Law: A Tribute To Judge Sally Adkins, Donald G. Gifford
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Direct (Anti-)Democracy, Maxwell L. Stearns
Direct (Anti-)Democracy, Maxwell L. Stearns
Faculty Scholarship
Legal scholars, economists, and political scientists are divided on whether voter initiatives and legislative referendums tend to produce outcomes that are more (or less) majoritarian, efficient, or solicitous of minority concerns than traditional legislation. Scholars also embrace opposing views on which law-making mechanism better promotes citizen engagement, registers preference intensities, encourages compromise, and prevents outcomes masking cycling voter preferences. Despite these disagreements, commentators generally assume that the voting mechanism itself renders plebiscites more democratic than legislative lawmaking. This assumption is mistaken.
Although it might seem unimaginable that a lawmaking process that directly engages voters possesses fundamentally antidemocratic features, this Article …