Initiative And Referendum Essay

Arguably the most important referendum in Australia’s history occurred on May 27th 1967. This was the day that decided Indigenous Australians place in society, representing Aboriginal discrimination coming to an end. The vote was not about getting citizenship or voting right for the Aboriginals, it was targeted at making amendments to the constitution, allowing the Indigenous Australians to be counted in the Australian census and allowing Australian laws that included the Aboriginal Australians. The 1967 referendum had two sections requiring change, section 51 and 127. The eradication of all prejudice requirements within Commonwealth constitution was passed with voters support by the Australian body with an astonishing  90.77% of votes.

The pros of the recall of elected officials is that “it provides a way for citizens to retain control over elected officials who are not representing the best interests of their constituents, or who are unresponsive or incompetent” (Recall of State Officials, 2013, September 11). This gives us “we the people” an opportunity to help out our state and the citizens within it. It gives us a voice. Now why giving the power directly to the people in should regards to referendum and how will it benefit our society? Referendums allow “citizens to determine policy directions on particular issues and to make and repeal laws by a direct vote of the people” (Gallop, L., 2007). A referendum gives the people the right for constitutional change and state referendums especially when it comes to social issues. In addition, the government should give the power to the people on the right to initiative because it will benefit our society. Initiatives, now permitted by 24 states, have been particularly prominent in the West, having been utilized more than 300 times as a part of Oregon, more than 250 times in California, and very nearly 200 times in Colorado. A wide range of issues have showed up on the vote in the different states, including regulation of professions and organizations, against smoking enactment, vehicle protection rates, premature birth rights,

The United States government system is very interesting and complexly designed. The state and federal government is a mirror of each other when it comes to the generics of the executive branch, legislative branch, and judicial branch, however, internally the state government has major differences on how the branches are conducted. Throughout this paper we will discuss the greatest difference between state and federal, which is the state cannot change or remove laws passed by the federal government but they could change how they execute the federal laws to their liking as long as it is constitutional.

The British colonies of north America declared their independence primarily for political reasons to what extent do you agree with this statement?

The Constitution has been operative since 1789 after the ratification of nine states (American Vision and Values, Page 52). Today many question the relevancy of a document 222 years old to our society. The Founders created a governmental framework, defining three branches and giving powers to the government and others to the states. It also guarantees the rights of the people. It took two and one-half years for the 13 colonies to ratify the Constitution. This ratification period was one of great debate and produced a series of essays complied into The Federalist. Authored by John Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay during the ratification debate in New York, they tried to get public support for the Constitution. Thus began the first

Voting has not always been as easy as it is today. It is interesting to examine how far America has progressed in its process of allowing different types of people to be able to vote. Voting was once aimed at a particular group of people, which were white males that owned their own property. Today, most people over the age of eighteen can vote, except for the mentally incompetent or people who have been convicted of major felonies in some states. The decline of voter participation has always been a debate in the public arena. According to McDonald and Popkin, it is “the most important, most familiar, most analyzed, and most conjectured trend in recent American political history (2001, 963)” The question is, how important is voter

The supreme law of the land is the constitution and what it does is establish the basic principles of the United States government. Representative democracy is the system of government we run under which means that the citizens choose representatives

The Constitution is the framework of America’s government as well as the supreme law of the United States. It was written and signed during the Philadelphia Convention on September 17, 1787. In the Constitution there are various amendments that outline the powers and duties of the government, the state’s rights, and the rights of the people, and the process of amending and ratifying the document (Sidlow, Henschen 26). Even though there have been new laws issued by the government, they have failed to be successfully passed as an amendment. Proposing and ratifying an amendment is not an easy or short process. The difficulty of amending the Constitution is due to the various steps before the ratification of an amendment.

Representative Democracy – the citizens choose a smaller group to represent them, make laws, and govern on their behalf, but the people remain the source of the government’s authority.

The Native vote, and Native political status could play key roles such as large “tribe votes” having many people vote for one candidate in the 2016 election. Thusly the Natives should not be disregarded in the election

power of the state as well as representatives of the state. The book provides an excellent

In doing so, political parties could ensure they held power regardless of public opinion. Those who counted the vote had the power to dictate the outcome. In an attempt to counteract and put an end to these activities, the citizens had to speak up and become more active in their government. Reformers implemented the concepts of initiative, referendum, and recall. Initiative petitioned a legislature to introduce a bill, making people more responsible for laws and political decisions. Referendums allowed citizens to vote on laws instead of state or national governments. Finally, recall allowed citizens to remove incompetent politicians from office with a second election. These practices did make progress, however, they lacked the power to truly investigate and exterminate the problem as a whole. They could adjust issues that were already present, but they did little to prevent future corruption. Similar to ending political corruption, the push for the direct election of senators through primary elections was an attempt get the citizens more active and promote democracy. Previously, senators were elected by legislators already in office; not the people. The Constitution stated, “The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the Legislature.” This led to legislatures electing individuals who they believed would be the best fit. To solve the problem, reformers pushed for the ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment. This adjustment to the Constitution states, “The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people” (Document C). By passing this amendment, the progressives had won a major victory. However, the amendment did little to make the government more democratic and nearly nothing to make it more efficient. Although the people had a

Because of the principles of direct democracy, the Arizona’s Constitution was created. With direct democracy citizens were responsible for governing themselves, not the elected representatives. America’s founders felt that direct democracy was impractical and unwise when they wrote the United Constitution in 1787. Although, the Progressive movement believed the government was no good and the only way to restore a fair government was to give power to the citizens. They struggle for the adoption of the initiative, citizens did not have to get permission from officials establish their own statues and constitutional measures; they needed 15% vote to get on ballot. Adoption of referendum, citizens could reject statues and constitutional measures adopted by official; they needed majority vote by Legislature to get on ballot, with the adoption of recall, official could be removed from office before the end of their term; they needed 25% to call a recall election. Finally, at the peak of the Progressive Movement Arizona became a state. The reasons the

The 2010 Nevada referendum, commonly known as question 1, would change the way judicial elections are held in this state. Under this proposed constitutional amendment, a Commission on Judicial Selection would be created with the task of recommending candidates to the governor for the appointment of open judicial seats. After the governor appoints the candidate to that position, that candidate would have to run for a retention election in two years. If the candidate receives more than 55% of the vote, then that individual would then serve the remainder of the 6 years term with the possibility of running for another retention election assuming the candidate seeks a second term. One of the reasons that may explain why this ballot initiative was

America is a wonderful place to live in, we have almost every thing you could possibly want out of a country, and just that fact should tell you, “This kid seems pretty confident.” Well, I am confident.