Thinking Outside the Box: A Response to Economist Magazine’s Report on Democracy in California
The Economist Magazine’s report on direct democracy
in California is an excellent compendium of existing direct democracy’s
shortcomings. However, all those failures in California exist (and then some!)
at the federal level of American government — where no direct democracy
exists. The point being that failure of governance need not be associated with
direct democracy. The report relies on history grade-school knowledge to
interpret Madison’s role in our founding.
Who
are the Sovereigns of the Polity – the People or Government Officialdom?
On three
separate occasions in 1787 and 1789 James Madison pointed out that, "The people were, in fact, the fountain of
all power, and by resorting to them, all difficulties were got over. They could
alter their constitutions as they pleased."
That most of
the Founders believed that the people had every right to exercise their
sovereignty to make laws, amend constitutions and to alter their governments is
reflected in the following quotes: