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Publication Date: May 2008
Publisher: Center for Governmental Studies
Author(s): Tracy Westen
Research Area: Politics
Keywords: Ballot Initiatives
Type: Report
Coverage: California
Abstract:
Ballot initiatives have reshaped the lives of California citizens for almost 100 years, yet the initiative process itself has become outmoded, inflexible, confusing, complex, difficult for citizens to use and excessively dominated by money, concludes a new report, Democracy by Initiative: Shaping California's Fourth Branch of Government, issued by the Center for Governmental Studies (CGS). California must update its system of "direct democracy" to bring it into the 21st Century. Reforms are needed to help citizens draft, circulate and vote more effectively and responsibly on initiatives that can dramatically affect the future of the state.