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Homeward Bound?: Micro-Level Legislative Responsiveness to Ballot Initiatives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2021

Daniel A. Smith
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Abstract

Recent macro-level studies examining the indirect effects of direct legislation on public policy in the American states are decidedly mixed. This study tests whether the macro-level logic of legislative behavior in response to ballot initiatives holds true at the micro-level for individual legislators. I examined the determinants of legislative votes on “counter-majoritarian” legislation—bills that directly challenge the outcomes of earlier statewide ballot initiatives. In 1999, the Colorado state legislature tried to overturn the outcomes of three previous ballot contests. I find that in two of the three cases, a legislator's vote on these bills was related to the vote in his or her district on the respective ballot initiative. This helps explain why many legislators will vote contrary to the outcome of a statewide initiative vote.

Type
Research Article
Information
State Politics & Policy Quarterly , Volume 1 , Issue 1 , Spring 2001 , pp. 50 - 61
Copyright
Copyright © The American Political Science Association, 2001

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