Mend, If Not End
What’s the Single Best Thing We Can Do to Improve the Initiative Process?
California’s statewide system of direct democracy–the initiative, referendum, and recall–turns 100 years old this fall. Remarkably, the system approved by voters in October 1911 has not changed all that much in the century since. But the state and its politics have changed radically, as California has grown from an outpost of 2.4 million people to a nation-within-a-nation of 38 million.
Since birthdays offer an opportunity for reflection and reassessment, this may be the perfect time to think about updating the initiative process. So in advance of a panel celebrating the …
