United States
- Main article: Initiatives and referendums in the United States
The United States has no initiative process at the national level, but the initiative is in use at the level of state government in 24 states and the District of Columbia, and is also in common use at the local government level.
Article I, Section I of the United States Constitution vests "all legislative powers herein granted" to the Congress of the United States." Establishing a national initiative procedure would likely require an amendment to the Constitution, which would under Article V require two-thirds of both houses of Congress or the application of two-thirds of the state legislatures to propose, and three-fourths of all state legislatures (or conventions in three-fourths of the states) to ratify. The Constitution itself was not ratified by referendum, but pursuant to Article VII was instead ratified by state conventions elected by the people.
Several proposals have been made to institute a national referendum. The Ludlow Amendment, introduced several times to the House of Representatives by Louis Ludlow of Indiana between 1935 and 1940 during an era of heightened isolationist tendencies, proposed an amendment to the Constitution that would require a national referendum to declare war, except in the case of invasion and attack. The amendment came closest to overcoming a discharge petition on January 10, 1938, when it was defeated in the House by a vote of 209 to 188, far short of the two-thirds vote required.
Unsuccessful attempts to get initiatives have nevertheless occurred, but since the proposals were bills, not a constitutional amendments, probably no initiative could have lawfully been voted on notwithstanding the bills' passage. The first attempt to get national ballot initiatives occurred in 1907 when House Joint Resolution 44 was introduced by Rep. Elmer Fulton of Oklahoma; the proposal was never put to a vote. In 1977, both the Abourezk-Hatfield National Voter Initiative and the Jagt Resolutions never got out of committee. Senator Mike Gravel was part of that effort.
The modern U.S. system of initiative and referendum originated in the state of South Dakota. South Dakota adopted initiative and referendum in 1898 by a vote of 23,816 to 16,483. Oregon was the second state to adopt and did so in 1902, when the state's legislators adopted it by an overwhelming majority. The "Oregon System", as it was at first known, subsequently spread to many other states, and became one of the signature reforms of the Progressive Era (1890s-1920s).
Part of a series on |
Politics |
---|
Primary topics
Index of politics articles
Politics by country Politics by subdivision Political economy Political history Political history of the world Political philosophy |
Political systems
Anarchist
Capitalist City-state Communist Democracy Federacy Feudalism Mixed economy Dictatorship Directorial Meritocracy Monarchy Parliamentary Presidential Semi-presidential Theocracy |
Academic disciplines
Political science
Political scientists International relations Comparative politics |
Public administration
Bureaucracy
Street-level bureaucracy Adhocracy |
Policy
Public policy
Public interest Foreign policy |
Organs of government
Separation of powers
Legislature Executive Judiciary Electoral branch |
Other topics
Sovereignty
Theories of political behavior Biology and political orientation Political Organisations |
Subseries
Elections
Electoral systems Voting Federalism Form of government Ideology Political campaigning Political parties |
Politics portal |
Read more about this topic: Initiative
Famous quotes related to united states:
“I am colored but I offer nothing in the way of extenuating circumstances except the fact that I am the only Negro in the United States whose grandfather on the mothers side was not an Indian chief.”
—Zora Neale Hurston (18911960)
“I have ever deemed it fundamental for the United States never to take active part in the quarrels of Europe. Their political interests are entirely distinct from ours. Their mutual jealousies, their balance of power, their complicated alliances, their forms and principles of government, are all foreign to us. They are nations of eternal war.”
—Thomas Jefferson (17431826)
“The United States is unusual among the industrial democracies in the rigidity of the system of ideological controlindoctrination we might sayexercised through the mass media.”
—Noam Chomsky (b. 1928)
“In the larger view the major forces of the depression now lie outside of the United States, and our recuperation has been retarded by the unwarranted degree of fear and apprehension created by these outside forces.”
—Herbert Hoover (18741964)
“The city of Washington is in some respects self-contained, and it is easy there to forget what the rest of the United States is thinking about. I count it a fortunate circumstance that almost all the windows of the White House and its offices open upon unoccupied spaces that stretch to the banks of the Potomac ... and that as I sit there I can constantly forget Washington and remember the United States.”
—Woodrow Wilson (18561924)