Direct Democracy In California

In Nevada, in contrast, the State Supreme Court uses a “staggered” system in order to appoint their judges. The judges are selected not by presidential appointment but by “qualified electors of the State at the general election,” and are only allowed to hold their office for a limited period of years. Furthermore, the Chief Justice is only allowed to maintain their post for six years, thus reducing the opportunity to shape the direction of the state’s laws throughout the remainder of their lives.

This paper is about the Propisition 60 that will be voted on in California this November. It discuses the opposing arguments for and against the bill and what the consequences will be if the bill is passed. Also it will discuss as to whether the Proposition is best viewed from consensus or conflict view of law.

Direct democracy involves the citizens of California to decide on the issues, but the citizens may not understand the proposed law or uninvolved. Improving direct democracy in California would involve the officials to make decisions that reflect the population and not the official self-interest. For example, Governor Jerry Brown signed the SB 1253, the Ballot Initiative Transparency Act, which strengthens the initiative process and legislature would "hold hearings months before ballots are printed, allowing lawmakers to make changes" or corrections. (Gardels, "California Tames Its Direct Democracy",2014) Citizens may lack knowledge of the proposed law and would need more information through television, news or billboards. California will continue to direct democracy in the government.

Direct Democracy in California started in the early part of the 20th century. Many citizens of the state of California were unhappy with their state's government. They believed that the government was representing special interest more than they were the will of the people. Railroad owners, such as those of the Southern Pacific Railroad had elected and public officials in their pockets. The officials were making laws that benefited railroads instead of making laws that benefited the citizens of California. In 1911, Californians changed the constitution so that they could make laws directly. This is how Californians created Initiatives and Referendums (Miller, P. 132-133).

The legislative framework of a country refers to the process of creating, utilization, and governing of laws. In the United States, the government of each of the 50 states is structured in accordance with their respective constitution and although not required, each are modeled after the federal government, consisting of the three branches: Executive, Legislative, and Judicial. Each of the state governments are also organized as a presidential system where the governor is the head of the state. Due to each state having their own governor as their representative, their legislative framework will vary with each state. For this paper, I will be comparing the legislative framework of Florida with the state of California.

The book, California Politics and Government: A practical Approach, helps students understand the government and politics. It describes the principles used in the state government and the relevance of these to the nowadays students and the future ones. The book has clear examples and explanations that help the students understand the California politics. It includes budgetary politics and policies, California law and court cases, government regulations, policymaking and elections in terms of political parties and interest groups. It addresses the economic, educational, immigration and social issues and theireffecton the politics. Students are able to familiarize with the public policy coverage; hence, make a connection between the effects and practical applications of legislation and the government.

41 out of the 49 bicameral legislatures in the United States are controlled by one party, and in many of these states a majority vote can override the veto power of a governor (National Conference of State Legislatures). If a state legislature passes a bill that strongly aligns with the ideas of their party, but it is then vetoed by their governor who is a member of the opposing party, or who is a more moderate member of the same party these partisan legislatures can then override that governor’s veto and pass whatever legislature they have created into law (Shanton). This allows for some blatantly Democratic or Republican bills to be passed into law. As an example of this, Governor Pat McCrory, in his first year in office only vetoed two bills, and both of these vetoes were easily overridden by the North Carolina General Assembly (Gabriel). When a legislature gains an override majority in legislature, this means that the majority party is essentially in control of the legislature of the entire state, meaning that they can pass whatever legislation they would like as long as it is deemed constitutional.

The democratic theory believes that everyone governs and has the most influence on politics in California. According to the democratic theory, voters have their own power to decide what laws to approve or disapprove by the state legislature. They also have the power to choose their own legislation, as well as

State governments are set up through state constitution, which usually have four sections. These sections are the: preamble which states the purpose and that the authority of the government comes from the people. Another section is the bill or declaration of rights which includes many of the same rights as in the U.S. Constitution’s Bill of Rights. To expand on this the states constitution are different due to the fact that many voter initiatives take the form of a constitutional amendment. States constitution varies in length and sizes. In fact California's constitution is one of

In the United States of America the California State courts have broad jurisdiction. Which a lot of state courts are mainly defined by jurisdiction, they have to hear all cases besides the cases that are again the United States. In the cases heard in state court are usually state level crimes. For example thing such as violation of state law,robbery, assault many drug related crimes, real estate cases, personal injury cases, divorces, custody, heritance, traffic and juvenile cases, copyright, and drunk driving defenses. When state cases get big enough and get out of the local area which rarely even happens but when it does it is most likely because of the party involved such as O.J. Simpson case which was followed closely and broadcasted for the whole country to see. In my opinion state courts have more one on one contact with the people because they deal with 29,000,000 more cases than the federal system has to deal with which is a big margin between each other. Just as the federal court make their own laws state courts make their own laws which retains power and make sure

California is a large state, it contains many different cities and many different kinds of people. Within this state there are large developed cities that have a population of over 3 million people, such as Los Angeles, and then there are some cities that have less than 100,000 people, like Redding. These two cities are located on the opposite sides of California, Redding is located in Northern California and LA is located in Southern California. The larger cities are mostly located in Southern California; therefore, they get the most representation. However, the smaller cities in Northern California practically get no say and are “underrepresented in the state legislature and ignored by California’s urban centers”, according to one the New York Daily News writer, Sarah Goodyear. This underrepresentation has affected Northern California cities in multiple ways.

The problem that we have is that sometimes-federal law and state laws are in conflict and are in direct opposition

Most state governments are modeled after the three branch system of government like the federal government, although it is not required by law to follow suit. Each state has their Constitution as well as having powers not giving to the federal government. (whitehouse.gov) States have an

Though the Federal and State Government are reflections of each other, when Federal laws are

First, the three spheres or levels of government in the American Democracy are National Government, State Government, and Local Government. Most American citizens have more contact with their local or state government than their federal government. Local government is what most people come into contact with in their daily life. Local government is divided into two different sectors counties and cities. Our local government has responsibility for city parks, our police and fire departments, as well as our school districts and hospitals. In our local government we elect as a people the mayor and other city council members to use the funds they are provided by the state and residents to make our cities great. As for the state government, “All powers not granted to the federal government are reserved for the states and the people”. (U.S. Constitution) The state government must have a republican form of government. This was guaranteed by