 
Slideshow
A Pictorial History of Ballot Initiatives
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The 1849 California constitution asserts that the people "have a right to alter or reform" state government "whenever the public good may require it." Throughout the state's history, changes have been made to the political structure, but none could match the intensity of reform brought
by direct legislation through the initiative and referendum process.
California's initiative process was born as a direct response to the political power of corporations. The Industrial Revolution led to the accumulation of wealth in the hands of few to a scale never before imagined. This imbalance resulted in wholesale corruption of American business and politics. For many of these industrial titans, or Robber Barons, the railroad was the ticket to enormous wealth.
The great rush to settle the West depended upon the necessity of cheap,
fast transporation. So from the 1860s through the start of the 20th
century, California's economy and its politics were dominated by one
powerful corporation, the Central Pacific Railroad. In business, the
railroad's tentacles spread through shipping, travel, land development,
and almost every major area of commerce in the state. In politics,
the railroad used cash and special favors to buy control of California's
legislature. In "The Octopus", his 1901 epic about the Central Pacific,
Frank Norris wrote of the railroads, "they own the ballot box...they
own us."
In the early 1900s a powerful citizens movement rose to challenge the railroad (by then renamed the Southern Pacific). These "Progressives", led by San Francisco prosecutor Hiram Johnson, won control of the California Republican Party in 1908 and elected anti-railroad majorities to both houses of the Legislature. Two years later, Johnson was elected Governor and led an intensive campaign of government reform.
In 1911, the new legislature pushed through sweeping changes to the state constitution. At the top of the list were women's suffrage, the regulation of public utilities, and the initiative to propose and enact state laws by direct vote of the people. California was the 10th state in the union to enact the initiative and referendum. Currently there are 24 states that have some form of initiative and referendum procedures.
Use of the initiative was strong until it went into a decline as a result of strong legislative action in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. In 1978, the initiative process blasted back onto center stage of California politics with landslide voter approval of Proposition 13, the historic tax cutting
measure.
Skyrocketing housing prices in California in the mid-1970s led to
a homeowner cry for property tax relief. When the legislature failed
to approve its own measure, two long-time anti-tax activists - Howard
Jarvis (shown at left) and Paul Gann - lead the rebellion. They authored
Proposition 13 which voters approved nearly two to one. It also re-ignited
the romance of the initiative as a source of real political power.
By the mid-1980s, the initiative began to replace the Legislature as the main arena for resolving large scale policy debates. In the last decade, the march to the ballot has continued at full speed - with initiatives on issues ranging from mountain lion protection to eliminating affirmative
action to term limits. Another major trend reshaping California's initiative process is an explosion of special interest cash into campaigns. Today some argue that the initiative process is dominated by the exact kind of money and special interests it was designed to overcome.
Despite its problems, the initiative process remains popular. In a recent study by the Public Policy Institute of California, seven in 10 residents "agree that citizen's initiatives bring up important public policy issues that the Governor and State Legislature have not adequately addressed." In other words, citizens value exercising their power to make laws equal to
the legislative branch of state government.
Special thanks to the Golden State Museum and California State Archives,
Sacramento, for the use of the historic images (slides 2-8). To find
out more about California's exciting history, visit the museum in
person or online at www.goldenstatemuseum.org.
Thanks also to author/activist Jim Shultz for allowing us to excerpt
his book, "The Initiative Cookbook: Recipes and Stories from California's
Ballot Wars." To purchase this book, contact the Democracy Center
at www.democracyctr.org.
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