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California Family Minute

November 9, 2011

Initiatives: Government of, by, for the People?

by Ron Prentice,
Chief Executive Officer

In government, the “powers that be” typically hate initiatives. For example, prior to retiring, California Supreme Court Justice Ronald George spoke out against the use of initiatives, saying that initiatives by the people “have rendered our state government dysfunctional.” However, the initiative process overruled George’s own historic but short-lived marriage opinion, so his perspective may be less than objective. 

The initiative process is a "direct democracy" tool of the people, and Proposition 8’s passage came only months after George and three other justices (out of seven) overturned California’s traditional marriage law (Proposition 22).

"Without initiatives and referendums, elites would barely bother at all to take note of public opinion on issues they disdained - from supermajority requirements to raise taxes to term limits,” says John Fund of the Wall Street Journal. “They serve as a reminder that the experts sometimes have to pay attention to good old common sense."

“People are much more educated and have access to much more information,” said John Matsusaka, president of the USC-based Initiative and Referendum Institute and author of For the Many or the Few.  “Therefore, people see less and less need to turn over authority on broad policy decisions. The government is left to implement them.”

According to the suggested timeline on the California Secretary of State’s Web site, initiatives should have been filed no later than September 30, 2011 in order to successfully make the deadline for the November 2012 general election. Following is a list of pro-family initiatives at some point in the process:

  • November 2014 General Election: Limit State Spending and Increase “Rainy Day” Budget Fund (Qualified)
  • November 2012 General Election: Prohibits Political Contributions by Payroll Deductions (Awaiting verification of signatures)
  • Parental Notification Act (Cleared for circulation)
  • California Human Rights Amendment (Filed and awaiting title and summary from the California Attorney General)
  • The Californians Against Sexual Exploitation Act (Filed and awaiting title and summary from the California Attorney General)

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