Democracy Derailed: The Initiative Movement and the Power of Money - Hardcover

Broder, David S.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0151004641 ISBN 13: 9780151004645

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2000

Synopsis

A Pulitzer Prizewinning journalist offers an analysis of the political initiative process, which began with California's Proposition 13 and which involves citizens voting directly on new laws, arguing that this process has been manipulated by the lobbyists and big money.

About this title

About the Author

David S. Broder, the Pulitzer-Prize-winning reporter and columnist, writers twice weekly for the Washington Post and is syndicated in more than 300 newspapers. He is a regular on NBC's Meet the Press, CNN's Inside Politics, and PBS's Washington Week in Review. He grew up in Chicago Heights, Illinois, and worked on the Bloomington (illinois) Pantagraph, Congressional Quarterly, the Washington Star, and the New York Times before joining the Post in 1966. He has covered every presidential election campagin since 1960. He is the author or coauthor of six previous books, most recetnly The Sysyten and the best-seller, Changing of the Guard. He lives in Arlington, Virginia.

Reviews

Now available in 24 states and the District of Columbia, the voter initiative process has been used to abolish affirmative action, expand casino gambling and deny educational and health benefits to the families of illegal immigrants. It has forced yes-or-no votes on issues as diverse as nude dancing and term limits, and, according to Pulitzer prize-winning Washington Post and syndicated columnist Broder (Changing of the Guard), it threatens to subvert the American form of representative government by allowing millionaires and special interests to rewrite state laws. In this well-argued and often chilling study, Broder scrutinizes the initiative process and delves into what one critic calls a "multimillion-dollar cottage industry" populated by paid signature gatherers, pollsters and public-relations firms. He finds democracy run amok: three wealthy men changed the drug laws of five states; billionaire Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen threw cash into a campaign to publicly finance a stadium for the Seattle Seahawks, a team he owned. The public, in turn, was stunned by initiatives and counterinitiatives on which anti-abortion, anti-hunting and pro-casino gambling forces, among many others, spent a quarter of a billion dollars in the 1998 election cycle alone. The centerpiece of the book is a balanced but tough-minded analysis of Proposition 226, the so-called "paycheck protection initiative" defeated in California after a viciously fought battle in 1998. Broder dissects the sloganeering of both sides to confirm a lobbyist's cynical assessment of the campaign as "a lotta little lies fighting one big lie." As tensions rise between direct democracy and representative government in America, this book gives a provocative critique of the initiative process as a panacea for democracy's ills. Author tour. (Apr.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Syndicated Washington Post columnist Broder examines initiatives--"the most uncontrolled and unexamined arena of power politics"--and their potential long-term impact on the nation. This electoral "reform" devised by Populists and Progressives a century ago, Broder argues, brushes aside the Founding Fathers' rejection of direct democracy, and, over the last several decades, the initiative process has "become the favored tool of millionaires and interest groups that use their wealth to achieve their own policy goals." Broder traces the history that gave citizens of 24 states and many smaller jurisdictions the right to put their issues on the ballot and describes in detail the "initiative industry" of signature-collectors, attorneys, and consultants that, for the most part, has replaced volunteers and activists. Broder draws examples from several states, notably Oregon (including multiple "physician-assisted suicide" votes) and California, whose Proposotion 13 tax rollback started the recent fascination with initiatives and whose 1998 campaign on "payroll protection" for union members is the subject of a focused chapter. Despite public cynicism about legislatures, Broder offers solid evidence that the initiative process, with its up-or-down simplicity and potential for manipulation by deep-pocket funders, is no solution to the nation's problems. Mary Carroll

Edition details

• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0151004641
• ISBN 13: 9780151004645
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 260