Government and Politics Issues

Voters Setting Policy Directly

From Florida to Alaska, voters are bypassing politicians and setting state policies through ballot initiatives. In no state is the trend more evident than in California -- where, observers report, the legislature regularly avoids contentious issues, certain they will wind up on the ballot.

  • The citizen initiative was created by turn-of-the-century reformers in the West and Midwest to get around corrupt legislatures dominated by special interests, historians report.

  • Twenty-four states adopted the process -- most of them by the early 1920s.

  • In California, statewide initiatives fell from a total of 36 during the 1930s to only nine during the 1960s -- but have grown dramatically in the decades since then, peaking at 48 during the period 1990 to 1997.

  • While California leads the nation in the number of ballot initiatives presented, it is followed closely by Colorado and Oregon.

Political analysts say that once California voters pass an initiative, the issue quickly goes national. This year, California voters will decide a range of issues from school class size and protecting the dues of union members from being spent on political activities with which they disagree to allowing local parent-teacher panels to make decisions on school spending and curriculum.

On average in recent years, about one-third of the measures which qualify for ballots nationwide end up passing -- although the rate in California has at times been much higher. Issues from taxes to bilingual education have wound up being fought out on the ballot after elected officials failed to resolve growing public dissatisfaction.

Source: Todd S. Purdum, "Ballot Initiatives Flourishing as Way to Bypass Politicians," New York Times, March 31, 1998.

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