Ballot Initiatives and Intergovernmental Relations in the United States

David B. Magleby

Publius: The Journal of Federalism, vol. 28, issue 1, 147-163

Abstract: Using ballot initiatives, voters in several states have recently voted to concentrate more power in their state governments at the expense of local autonomy and experimentation. Whether the issue is gay rights, rent control, regulation of hazardous waste facilities, zoning, or tax policy, initiative activists have frequently sought to reverse local government policies with a statewide initiative. Counter examples that have encouraged local government experimentation also exist in areas such as campaign-finance reform. The initiative is a powerful agenda-setting device, not only for the voters in the initiative states but also for other states and the federal government. Direct legislation has been used by activists to assert state prerogatives in policy areas long thought to be national in scope, for example, immigration and drug classification. Voters have also cast ballots to limit the terms of members of the Congress, actions later declared unconstitutional. The role of the courts in determining the constitutionality of initiatives is one of the most important manifestations of federalism in direct democracy. Copyright , Oxford University Press.

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