A General Summary of the Initiative, Referendum, and Recall Process
Because I don't know who is familiar or not with these instruments of citizen lawmaking or where a reader is in this series of excerpts on A Government By The People, I am including a summary of how the process works with each excerpt:
(1) In the initiative process, if citizens from a specific political unit i.e., town, county, state, or nation, desire as citizen lawmakers to see a specific proposition become law, and they get the legally designated number of signatures of registered voters required by law for that unit of government in support of that law, that proposition goes to the registered voters of that unit of government for a vote, and if the proposition receives the majority of the votes cast, the proposition becomes law.
(2) In a citizen referendum, if the citizens of a specific political unit disapprove of a law passed by their legislature, and they obtain the legally designated number of signatures of registered voters required by law in support of a proposition demanding the repeal of that law, that proposition goes to the registered voters of that unit of government, and if the proposition received the majority of the votes cast, the law is repealed.
(3) In a recall, through the same process, citizens can recall representative or public officials, except that in this instance a super majority is usually required.
Citizen Lawmaking: Does the Initiative, Referendum, and Recall Process Trample Minority Rights?
Critics argue that the initiative referendum, and recall process undermine minority rights. From the inception of this country there has been a concern for minority rights versus the will of the majority. In recent years the initiative and referendum process has become so popular in states like California that this concern for minority rights has become highlighted by critics of the process who point out the most prejudicial uses of the initiative, referendum, and recall process in the past such as the constitutional amendment in 1920 that essentially barred Japanese aliens from owning land, Proposition 187 that was passed in 1994 and reduced social services to illegal immigrants, and Proposition 209 that eliminated affirmative action programs in public education, government hiring, and contracting. So, let us look at the record.
California is particularly interesting as a study in minority rights versus the will of the majority. California has become a majority-minority state, meaning that no single ethnic or racial group constitutes a simple majority in the state. However, even though non-Hispanic whites are no longer a majority in the state, they still make up two-thirds of the voting population, and in a winner-take-all voting process, they can potentially outvote and pass legislation that ethnic and racial minorities in California collectively opposed. This being the case, the question of whether minorities are winners or losers in the initiative, referendum, and recall process becomes critical, not only for blacks, Asians, and Latinos in California, but for whites as well since they may soon become a minority and are now a minority in some cities, counties, and districts of the country. Therefore, as the movement for true democracy in this country picks up speed, the issue of minority versus majority rights has become an important issue to us all.
In 2001, Zoltan Haynal and Hugh Louch published a study for the Public Policy Institute of California entitled, Are There Winners and Losers? This study was based on the analysis of all initiatives between 1978 and 2002 in California. The study concluded that even though minorities did not fare well on minority focused propositions like Proposition 187 and Proposition 209 referred to previously, these types of propositions only represent about 5% of all the propositions considered during the period studied.
When we consider the full scope of the propositions considered between 1978 and 2000, and, at the same time, consider propositions that minorities say are important to them or, as a group, they have a clear preference for or against, the results of the study concludes that Blacks, Latinos, and Asians have roughly the same probability of being on the winning side of an initiative as do white voters. (Hajnal 22-24)
In a CBS/ New York Times Poll, the question was asked, “Would you say the government is pretty much run by a few big interests looking out for themselves or that it is run for the benefit of all the people?” In the poll, 64% of the respondents said that the government was run by a few big interests and 28% of the respondents said it was run by all the people with 8% unsure. In the same poll, the respondents were asked, “How much say do you think people like yourself have about what the government does – a good deal or not much?” In the poll 90% of the respondents said that they did not think that people like themselves had a good deal to say about what the government does. (CBS/New York Times Poll, July 11-15, 2004)
Is it a wonder then why African Americans, Asians, Latinos, and most working-class Californians support the initiative, referendum, and recall process of citizen lawmaking? Like the vast majority of Americans, they know that Sacramento and Washington are dominated by big money, global corporations, financial institutions, and special interest groups, and it far better to be batting .500 in the initiative process than never getting up to the plate in Washington and Sacramento. I repeat,
It is far better to be batting .500 in the initiative, referendum, and recall process of citizen lawmaking than to never get up to the plate in Washington and Sacramento.
Cites:
Hajnal, Zolton, Hugh Louch, Are There Winners and Losers? Race, Ethnicity. and California's Initiative Process, Public Policy Institute, California
CBS News/New York Times Poll, View of the Parties, July 11-15, 2004 https://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/CBSNews_polls/parties_views.pdf
Chart:
1. PPIC Statewide Survey, January 2000 from Hajnal, Zolton, Hugh Louch, Are There Winners and Losers? Race, Ethnicity. and California's Initiative Process, Public Policy Institute, California (p.45)
2. Popularity of Initiative, PPIC Statewide Survey, January 2000 Are There Winners and Losers? Race Ethnicity, and California’s Initiative Process, by Zoltan Hajnal and Hugh Louch, Public Policy Institute, California, 2001,p 45.
Author's Note - Learn or Die: The New American Revolution is a two part revolution of political and economic democracy. Initially in the excerpts from the book that I am sharing, I am focusing on the political revolution and citizen lawmaking. In this study of political democracy, I will cover key questions about the initiative, referendum, and recall process of citizen lawmaking: 1) Does money dominate the process? (2) Does the initiative, referendum, and recall process of lawmaking trample minority rights? (3) Does the process work for everyone? (4) Is the average American capable of being a citizen lawmaker?
Author's Note - I have made Learn or Die: The New American Revolution available to you through Smashwords in a Freedom for Free Edition where you can pay what you want for the book or nothing at all. It is free. I'm doing this because after 50 years of research and study I believe I have found the way for all of us.
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