Fixing California direct democracy requires fixing California government
California leaders are discussing changes to our state’s troubled direct democracy. But not one of the proposals is bold enough to reach the heart of what’s wrong with our system of initiatives, referenda, and recalls.
Our direct democracy exists in its own weird world, apart from the rest of California government. When we put measures on the ballot and approve them, those voter-approved laws and constitutional amendments don’t have to fit within existing laws or practices.
Ballot initiatives can spend money or change taxes in ways that violate existing budgets. Ballot initiatives can establish restrictions on democratic rule — like new supermajorities — and impose complex formulas on government programs. Once ballot initiatives are approved by voters, they can’t be amended or corrected by lawmakers — unless the initiative’s original text permits it.
In essence, our direct democracy designed to screw everything up. That screwing up, in turn, breeds frustration with government — which makes Californians want to file more initiatives, which screw up government more.
Now, after the failed attempt to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom, California has entered one of those rare moments when proposals are being made to reform our direct democracy, particularly the recall. But none will end the cycle of frustration. Because none of them will integrate direct democracy with the rest of the government.
Still, it’s good news that California movers-and-shakers, some of whom were involved in a thoughtful 2014 reform that created a little more flexibility in the ballot initiative process, are figuring out how to instill more deliberation into our direct democracy.
Some of the most interesting ideas involve incorporating citizens assemblies — randomized, representative groups of regular citizens — into the process. Such bodies might create create voter-friendly titles and official summaries for ballot measures that are easier for voters to understand. They might even decide which initiatives belong on the ballot.
Such reforms might eventually create space for more changes in the process, but they are still too small — because they focus just on changing direct democracy. True integration would mean changing the rest of California’s dysfunctional and complicated government as well.
The most straightforward way to do this is unfortunately a political longshot: a convention to create California’s first new constitution since 1879. But there are intermediary improvements we could make now.
The easiest would be a rethinking of our election calendar. Let’s remove initiatives from the too-long November ballots, full of candidate races. We then could give direct democracy a new calendar that fits the work schedule of state government. At least three days each year should be dedicated to votes on state ballot measures — one during the spring budget season (so tax and spending initiatives could be incorporated in the budget), and the others in September (at the end of the state legislation session) and December (when lawmakers draft new laws for the following year).
Such a calendar should be reinforced with requirements that ballot initiatives live within existing budgets (if they add spending or reduce taxation, measures must identify revenue sources to balance things out) and to be subject to amendment by legislators, like other statutes. At the same time, we should make it easier for regular Californians to correct the mistakes of legislators — perhaps with a citizens’ assembly that can review and change legislation before it takes effect.
And Californians, when voting on measures, need to learn to think more like legislators. Some rich person now claiming to be “saving democracy” should offer free training to all of us on how to read a budget and proposed legislation, including initiatives.
Since Californians insist on the power to act as lawmakers, we need to know how laws work.
Joe Mathews writes the Connecting California column for Zócalo Public Square.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Fixing direct democracy requires fixing California government
