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Initiative, Referendum and Recall

Comparing the old constitutions with the new ones, it may be said that the note of those enacted in the first thirty or forty years of the republic was their jealousy of executive power and their careful safeguarding of the rights of the citizen; that of the second period, from 1820 to the Civil War (1861–65), the democratization of the suffrage of institutions generally; that of the third period (since the war to the present day), a disposition to limit the powers and check the action of the legislature, and to commit power to the hands of the whole people voting at the polls.

And at the close of his treatment of local government in the United States, the same authority writes (Vol. 27, p. 651):

Several state constitutions now contain provisions enabling a prescribed number (or proportion) of the voters in a state or city to submit a proposition to all the registered voters of the state (or city) for their approval. If carried, it takes effect as a law. This is the Initiative. These constitutions also allow a prescribed number of voters to demand that a law passed by the state legislature, or an ordinance passed by the municipal authority, be submitted to all the voters for their approval. If rejected by them, it falls to the ground. This is the Referendum. Some cities also provide in their charters that an official, including the mayor or a member of the council, may be displaced from office if, at a special election held on the demand of a prescribed number of the city voters, he does not receive the largest number of votes cast. This is the Recall. All these three institutions are in operation in some Western states and are spreading to some of the Eastern cities. Their working is observed with lively interest, for they carry the principle of direct popular sovereignty to lengths unprecedented except in Switzerland. But it is not merely to the faith of the Western Americans in the people that their introduction is due. Quite as much must be ascribed to the want of faith in the legislature of states and cities, which are deemed too liable to be influenced by selfish corporations.

In connection with the above reference to the referendum and initiative in Switzerland, see the description of the Swiss system of continuous control by the electors (Vol. 26, p. 243).

On previous experience, outside the United States, with the referendum and the initiative, see the article Referendum (Vol. 23, p. 1), by the Rev. Dr. W. A. B. Coolidge, an American whose life has been chiefly spent in, and devoted to the study of, Switzerland, where the system was evolved. In the United States the system was first tried in Oregon, and the student should read the description in the article Oregon of the legislative department (Vol. 20, p. 246), which also deals with the recall of officers. See also under Oklahoma (Vol. 20, p. 59), and the articles on South Dakota and Los Angeles.

Suffrage

On suffrage in the United States see p. 647 of Vol. 27, describing the requirements in different states and pointing out that “by the Federal Constitution state suffrage is also the suffrage for Federal elections, viz. elections of representatives in Congress and of presidential electors.” On representation see the passage on p. 653 of Vol. 27, a portion of which has been quoted above; and on representation in state legislatures see p. 647 of Vol. 27 and consult the articles on the separate states, where in the sections headed Government there is also supplementary information about election and ballot laws. It is interesting to note, in the articles on Mississippi, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana and Oklahoma, that these states have practically disfranchised the negro. For a concrete instance of the awkward working of the electoral college, in the choice of the president in 1876, see the article Electoral Commission (Vol. 9, p. 172). On the position of aliens see the articles Allegiance (Vol. 1, p. 689) and Naturalization (Vol. 19, p. 275); and articles on various states. In the article Oregon, for instance (Vol. 20, p. 245), the reader will find that “the constitution provides that no Chinaman, not a resident of the state at the time of the adoption of the constitution, shall ever hold any real estate or mining claim, or work any mining claim in the state.”

See also, on the whole subject, the articles Ballot (Vol. 3, p. 279); Vote (Vol. 28, p. 216); Voting Machines (Vol. 28, p. 217); Election (Vol. 9, p. 169); Representation (Vol. 23, especially pp. 112–116, for proportional voting, second choice voting, etc.), and Women (Vol. 28, p. 782) for the history of the woman’s suffrage movement. In that connection it is curious to note in this article (p. 787) that, owing to an oversight in the wording of the first constitution of New Jersey, women could vote in that state from 1776 to 1807. For any thorough knowledge of practical, as contrasted with theoretical representative government in the United States, the student should read what Mr. Bryce has to say about Party Government (Vol. 27, p. 658–660); a large part of the article on the history of the United States after the adoption of the Constitution (Vol. 27, pp. 688–735); articles on the great parties, Federalist (Vol. 10, p. 235), Democratic (Vol. 8, p. 2), and Republican (Vol. 23, p. 177); and the lives of the great party leaders from Hamilton and Jefferson to McKinley, Roosevelt, Bryan and Woodrow Wilson. A fuller outline for the study of United States history will be found in another chapter of this Guide, on History of the United States.

Municipal Government