4. Initiatives put people in the drivers seat. Giving people responsibility makes them more responsible. In Switzerland, with local and regional initiatives for centuries, and national initiatives since 1891, per capita newspaper readership is highest in the world. Empowering people gives us a reason to get informed.
5. State initiatives are competition for legislators. National initiatives will break the monopoly Congress now has on national legislative power. May the best ideas win!
6. People are less swayed by money than representatives are. This study and book show that people favor "grassroots" initiatives over "big money" initiatives while the Associated Press shows Congress usually votes the way big money wants. Buying Congress is the world's best investment, paying off at 1000 to 1 or more, according to convicted lobbyist/bribesman Jack Abramoff in this Washington Post article.
7. "No one misunderstands the public as much as its representatives." was a conclusion of a 1997 study from the U. of Maryland. No wonder: most of them are millionaires, at least.
8. When legislators make mistakes they usually cover them up --to protect their careers. Citizens lack the coverup incentive but have incentive to fix mistakes, because we suffer from those mistakes far more than the privileged. Thomas Jefferson said
"The will of the majority is the natural law of every society and the only sure guardian of the rights of man; though this may err, yet its errors are honest, solitary and short-lived."
9. Large, diverse groups of independent people make better decisions. The best-selling book The Wisdom of Crowds shows how and why. Basically, the larger the group, the more our personal cognitive biases cancel each other out. See a list of biases.
10. Social animals practice democracy! NY Times article
11. The record shows that the more ballot initiatives, the better the voter turnout.
12. New research shows that States with lots of direct democracy are happier!
ANSWERING SOME OBJECTIONS (IF YOU HAVE OTHERS, PLEASE PUT THEM IN COGENT FORM IN COMMENTS):1. "If the majority of people rule, they will abuse minorities." The media have focused on the few problem initiatives like California's Prop 8, which like Colorado's Amendment 2, would have restricted gay rights, if the courts didn't strike them down. But far worse are the actions of representatives, who criminalized sodomy, imprisoned Japanese-Americans during World War II, persecuted communists and their friends during the McCarthy era, and continue to persecute marijuana users, for almost 80 years now. (The courts didn't strike these down!) Ball initiatives got the ball rolling for medical marijuana and recreational, and now have legalized gay marriage in Maine, Maryland and Washington. These facts also give the lie to the Libertarian trope, "Democracy is two wolves and a sheep deciding what's for dinner." We are people, not wolves. The vast majority of us are decent people.
2. "We must educate people first." Ballot initiatives give people the incentive to educate themselves. Without power, why try to inform yourself -in spite of the manipulative mass media- when you can't do anything about it anyway, as the Princeton study mentioned above shows? See 4 and 8, above.
3. "Representatives take more time to study the issues than voters." Actually, as Senator Mike Gravel says, 90% of representatives haven't read 90% of what they vote on, as they spend their time raising money. Lobbyists and lawyers write a great deal of legislation, and read and interpret it for the representatives. Voters do need better information, and improvements 1 & 5, below, give it to them.
Remember, we want both direct and representative government, so they check and balance each other.
HERE ARE SOME WAYS THAT BALLOT INITIATIVES CAN BE MADE BETTER AND MORE DELIBERATIVE, MORE LIKE NEW ENGLAND TOWN MEETINGS:1. Citizen Initiative Review, instituted in Oregon in 2011 and now spreading to Colorado and Arizona, has randomly selected "jurors" hold hearings, take expert testimony, deliberate and issue reports, all available as online video. This gives voters the same kind of information legislators get.
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