Voters given propositions they cannot ignore but referendums are a no-no

IF YOU are suffering from referendum fatigue, then it is probably not a good idea to head to the United States over the next couple of weeks.

In California, there are no fewer than 17 “propositions” on the ballot paper on November 8, and voters there are used to being bombarded by television ads and billboard campaigns. The “Official Voter Information Guide” for the State, meanwhile, runs to 224 pages.

Subjects include school bonds, hospital fees, bond issues, additional taxes to fund education and healthcare, criminal sentences, English language proficiency, “adult films” and condoms, the death penalty, firearms, plastic bag charges and legalisation of marijuana – in other words the full gamut of modern American politics.

Although many states allow either citizen or legislatureinitiated ballots, California is well known for what the influential pollster Nate Silver calls its “addiction” to the process. But there are obvious problems, not least the likelihood that voters will approve propositions providing new public services while rejecting those that increase taxes, which does not exactly help the State’s notorious budgetary problems.

There are exceptions that prove the rule. In 2012, Governor Jerry Brown proposed a modest increase in California’s sales tax to avoid education cuts, and it was approved. Another notable success was the 1978 campaign to reject “Proposition 6”, which sought to ban gays and lesbians from working in public schools – the Californian equivalent of Section 28. The San Francisco politician Harvey Milk famously helped swing public opinion from general support to overwhelming opposition, even getting former governor (and future president) Ronald Reagan on side.

In Louisiana, meanwhile, there are a more modest six “legislatively referred constitutional amendments” on next month’s ballot, most of which relate to taxation or future budget deficits, with some being “parish” (or county) specific. Unlike California, however, Louisiana doesn’t allow citizeninitiated ballots, much like neighbouring Texas, which is why the Lone Star State’s Nationalist Movement has to lobby the legislature for a ballot.

Interestingly, this process of direct democracy gives rise to a similar debate surrounding referendums in the UK, some arguing that it undermines representative government and others that it’s essential to guard against vested interests.

But the obvious counter to that is that initiatives can just as easily be influenced by corporate interests, for example the pharmaceutical industry has spent $109 million trying to defeat Californian Proposition 61, which prohibits higher drug prices.

There is no mechanism in the US Constitution, however, for a federal referendum, although back in 2013 Gallup found that 68 per cent of voters favoured national referenda on key issues provided enough voters signed a petition. But awareness of Brexit is high across the pond and generally considered a bad thing, so perhaps that no longer holds.