More people power would improve government
Published August 26, 2015
by Doug Clark, Greensboro News-Record, August 26, 2015.
We could use some people power in North Carolina. Right now, we’ve got nothing.
North Carolina residents need what citizens in more than two dozen states have had for years — the ability to initiate ballot measures proposing legislative and constitutional changes.
Our state constitution says that “All political power is vested in and derived from the people,” but that noble-sounding principle is far from reality. Instead, political power is entrusted to our elected legislature, which is supposed to exercise it on behalf of the people, as a legal guardian would look after the interests of a child.
A child who never grows up, and never will as long as the legislature maintains its hold on power.
How is this legislature doing? Last week, Public Policy Polling released a survey indicating that our legislature has an approval rating of 15 percent. Sixty percent disapproved.
That would be enough negative sentiment to toss every legislator out in the next election — if elections were fair. They’re not. Incumbents raise a lot more money from special-interest groups than do challengers, and they run in heavily gerrymandered districts. Their advantages are so pronounced that very few face serious contenders.
Proposals to level the playing field — with the creation of a nonpartisan redistricting commission, for example — would have to pass the legislature itself. Of course, there’s no chance of that.
If North Carolina citizens had initiative-and-referendum power, however, everything would be different.
People here could do what Arizona residents did. They petitioned to put an independent redistricting measure on the ballot, and then passed it. The legislature was so incensed by this rebellious act of people power that it challenged the measure in court — and lost. The people won.
What about term limits? Legislators will never agree to them, but a popular initiative could let the people decide at the ballot box.
The people could propose a home rule measure to make sure that residents of cities and counties could decide for themselves how to structure their local governments. In North Carolina, as we know, the legislature can and often does tell the locals how to elect their own city and county leaders.
Are we comfortable electing judges who raise campaign funds from lawyers who argue cases before them and political organizations whose causes are advanced or set back by decisions the courts make? We had a public campaign financing system that avoided those potential conflicts, but the legislature did away with it. It would be well worth putting the question to a vote of the people.
Many other issues could be settled at the polls. Should state tax dollars pay for private education? Should North Carolina build more toll roads? What about a limit on how long the legislature can meet? How about a requirement to pass a budget on time? Why not let the people vote on whether to allow or bar fracking and offshore drilling?
Not every question should be settled this way. Legislatures should be empowered to set annual budgets, which involve thousands of individual tax-and-spending decisions. Most legislation would be handled just as it is now.
But the legislature shouldn’t act as gatekeeper, preventing popular measures from seeing the light of day. Even the governor is thwarted. His proposal to put highway and infrastructure bonds on a statewide referendum in November was refused by the legislature and may never make it to a vote.
There are critics who fear the idea of democracy run amok, a sort of mob rule at the ballot box. Early in the last century, majorities approved Jim Crow measures in some states. Only three years ago, North Carolina voters added a marriage amendment to our state constitution in a referendum put on the ballot by the legislature. The courts have to provide a check on outcomes that violate basic rights.
Others warn that an initiative-and-referendum process can be manipulated by special-interest groups spending millions to circulate petitions and then to win the vote. But that kind of money can also buy legislatures.
Perhaps the best outcome of this power would be to make the legislature truly serve the people. Just the threat of direct action could force legislators to act in the interest of the public.
When the legislature fails to deliver good government, the people should have the right to secure it for themselves.
August 26, 2015 at 9:45 am
Richard L Bunce says:
Tyranny of the majority not needed here. Citizens elect the State Legislature... all the power they need. I lived in WA for 13 years and the initiative process messed the State government even worse than the government bureaucrats do on their own. A Republican form of government is just fine. This has only been raised as an issue since the Democratic Party was no longer the majority in the NC Legislature... just like redistricting changes.
August 26, 2015 at 9:47 am
Richard L Bunce says:
Home rule is also a terrible idea. If anything we need the State to exercise more control over the local governments they create to reign in the out of control power grab the NC cities in particular have been getting away with for decades.
