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A New Law Or Constitutional Amendment

Decent Essays

All states in this great nation have three basic branches of government known as the executive, legislative, and the judicial branch. California is no different. The Governor, Jerry Brown heads up the executive branch as a face for the people of California (California, 2013). Now we will look at the type of democracy that truly sets California aside from other states, direct democracy.
With a general overview, a direct democracy is a broad term that encompasses an assortment decision processes, including town meeting, recall elections, initiatives, and referendums. The referendum is a process that allows the citizens to approve or reject laws of constitutional amendments proposed by the government. On the opposite side of a referendum, an initiative is the proposal of a new law or constitutional amendment by the ordinary citizens to the state government. No more than half of the states offer options of either, with twenty-five states offering popular referendum and only eight-teen states offering a recall (Bowman, 2012, p.82) This is what sets California apart from many of the other states that do not allow recall or initiatives.
While initiatives can be a great thing,
Direct democracy has given Californians a since of freedom and choice for who runs their state. You could see this advantage/disadvantage (based on personal opinion) in 2003. In 2003, the governor of California, Govenor Gray Davis was removed from office by a recall (Bowman, 2012, p 85). The states budget

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