POL SCI 50 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Direct Democracy
Document Summary
The only people to campaign against it were teachers, for property taxes were the number 1 source of school money. It changed the rule for legislatures to change things about money. They now needed a 2/3 majority to change monetary laws. This meant bipartisan compromises and that minority parties could stall. Direct democracy is citizens bypassing representatives and making laws themselves. Representative democracy is electing representatives (politicians) to make laws for you. The benefits of direct democracy include: people have a vested interest, elections are blunt and do not accurately convey every preference, dd is more precise, it serves as a check and threat to representative governments, and elections are infrequent. The pitfalls of dd include: tyranny of the majority, selfish citizens, poorly informed citizens, hard to see the big picture if you go issue by issue. An initiative is a law suggested by the people and directly voted on by the people.
