Comments on: A week in the life of California, troubled state http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/05/22/a-week-in-the-life-of-california-troubled-state/ now with extra source Sun, 12 Feb 2012 02:48:10 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Evan Ravitz http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/05/22/a-week-in-the-life-of-california-troubled-state/#comment-27168 Evan Ravitz Fri, 22 May 2009 19:27:29 +0000 http://www.crikey.com.au/?p=60462#comment-27168 Solutions to ballot initiative problems have been generally agreed on and available for many decades. But legislators NEVER improve the process, only try to make it harder -last year with AZ Prop. 105 and CO Ref. O, both wisely defeated by voters. Voters on ballot initiatives need what legislators get: public hearings, expert testimony, amendments, reports, etc. The best project for such deliberative process is the National Initiative for Democracy, led by former Sen. Mike Gravel: http://Vote.org. Also http://healthydemocracyoregon.org/ and http://cirwa.org In Switzerland (and Michigan & Florida), petitions can be published or left at stores for people to read and sign at leisure, so there are less aggressive petitioners, more informed signers, and less $ required. The Swiss vote on initiatives 3-7 times a year so there's never too many on one ballot. Because they have real power (including national initiatives), the Swiss read more newspapers/capita than anyone else. In Switzerland, representatives are humbler and more representative after centuries of local and cantonal (state) ballot initiatives, and national initiatives since 1891. They call their system "co-determination." This works for all relationships! Solutions to ballot initiative problems have been generally agreed on and available for many decades. But legislators NEVER improve the process, only try to make it harder -last year with AZ Prop. 105 and CO Ref. O, both wisely defeated by voters.

Voters on ballot initiatives need what legislators get: public hearings, expert testimony, amendments, reports, etc. The best project for such deliberative process is the National Initiative for Democracy, led by former Sen. Mike Gravel: http://Vote.org. Also http://healthydemocracyoregon.org/ and http://cirwa.org

In Switzerland (and Michigan & Florida), petitions can be published or left at stores for people to read and sign at leisure, so there are less aggressive petitioners, more informed signers, and less $ required. The Swiss vote on initiatives 3-7 times a year so there’s never too many on one ballot. Because they have real power (including national initiatives), the Swiss read more newspapers/capita than anyone else.

In Switzerland, representatives are humbler and more representative after centuries of local and cantonal (state) ballot initiatives, and national initiatives since 1891. They call their system “co-determination.” This works for all relationships!

]]> By: scottyea http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/05/22/a-week-in-the-life-of-california-troubled-state/#comment-27160 scottyea Fri, 22 May 2009 13:59:07 +0000 http://www.crikey.com.au/?p=60462#comment-27160 California is already just about a Mexican state - there is apparently a representative in the Mexican parliament for California, and the migration of Mexicans into the South-Western USA is the largest migration of humans in recorded history. From another perspective, I guess CA won't be ceding in a hurry, anyway. LOL, not as long as there are bail-outs being doled out. "Money", I might add, that is created by the push of a button .... Hey! Hollywood's in CA! Surely they can come up with an answer, after all, they have Superman, Chuck Norris, Morgan Freeman, Dr Phil & Oprah..... California is already just about a Mexican state - there is apparently a representative in the Mexican parliament for California, and the migration of Mexicans into the South-Western USA is the largest migration of humans in recorded history.

From another perspective, I guess CA won’t be ceding in a hurry, anyway. LOL, not as long as there are bail-outs being doled out. “Money”, I might add, that is created by the push of a button ….

Hey! Hollywood’s in CA! Surely they can come up with an answer, after all, they have Superman, Chuck Norris, Morgan Freeman, Dr Phil & Oprah…..

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