Direct democracy, policy diffusion, and medicalized marijuana

2021 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 72-82
Author(s):  
Cynthia Rugeley ◽  
John Frendreis ◽  
Raymond Tatalovich
Keyword(s):  
Direct Democracy ◽  
Policy Diffusion ◽  
State Legislatures ◽  
Representative Government ◽  
Conventional Model ◽  
Political Variable ◽  
Horizontal Diffusion ◽  
Citizen Initiatives ◽  
R Process

AbstractVirtually all studies of policy diffusion are based on statutory enactments by state legislatures. But a substantial number of medicalized marijuana laws were initiated through citizen initiatives and ratified by referenda (I&R). This case study suggests that the diffusion of laws adopted by I&R requires two modifications to the conventional model of policy diffusion. First, early policy adoptions must occur through direct democracy so that horizontal diffusion results when those past adoptions by the I&R process lead to future adoptions. Second, the necessity of bypassing institutions of representative government must be operationalized as an interaction between the availability of direct democracy and the precise political variable that blocks legislative enactments.

Kämpfe um Bergbau und die Möglichkeiten demokratischer Transformation

2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (189) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristina Dietz
Keyword(s):  
Direct Democracy ◽  
Social Power ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
The Political ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Political Effects ◽  
Mining Project ◽  
National Governments ◽  
The Relationship

The article explores the political effects of popular consultations as a means of direct democracy in struggles over mining. Building on concepts from participatory and materialist democracy theory, it shows the transformative potentials of processes of direct democracy towards democratization and emancipation under, and beyond, capitalist and liberal democratic conditions. Empirically the analysis is based on a case study on the protests against the La Colosa gold mining project in Colombia. The analysis reveals that although processes of direct democracy in conflicts over mining cannot transform existing class inequalities and social power relations fundamentally, they can nevertheless alter elements thereof. These are for example the relationship between local and national governments, changes of the political agenda of mining and the opening of new spaces for political participation, where previously there were none. It is here where it’s emancipatory potential can be found.

Remember the Ladies: Competition and Mobilization in the United States

2018 ◽  
pp. 83-132
Author(s):  
Dawn Langan Teele
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Political Geography ◽  
Gilded Age ◽  
Political Competition ◽  
State Legislatures ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Us ◽  
Race Ethnicity

This chapter presents a case study of women's enfranchisement in the United States. It argues that the formation of a broad coalition of women, symbolized by growing membership in a large non-partisan suffrage organization, in combination with competitive conditions in state legislatures, was crucial to securing politicians' support for women's suffrage in the states. The chapter first gives a broad overview of the phases of the US suffrage movement, arguing that the salience of political cleavages related to race, ethnicity, nativity, and class influenced the type of movement suffragists sought to build. It then describes the political geography of the Gilded Age, showing how the diversity of political competition and party organization that characterized the several regions mirrors the pattern of women's enfranchisement across the states.

The Translation Perspective as an Alternative to the Policy Diffusion Paradigm: The Case of the Swedish Methadone Maintenance Treatment

2005 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 365-388 ◽  
Author(s):  
BJÖRN JOHNSON ◽  
BO HAGSTRÖM
Keyword(s):  
Methadone Maintenance Treatment ◽  
Maintenance Treatment ◽  
Methadone Maintenance ◽  
Continuous Process ◽  
Policy Diffusion ◽  
Policy Ideas ◽  
Local Contexts ◽  
Points Of View ◽  
Distribution Of Power

In the policy sciences the study of dissemination phenomena is usually connected to the concept of policy diffusion. In view of what has been produced using this perspective, there is every reason to develop alternative points of view. In this article we present the main features of one such alternative: the constructivist translation perspective. The translation perspective depicts policy diffusion as an imitation process, where meaning is constructed by disembedding policy ideas from their previous context and using them as models for altered political structures in a new context. The translation metaphor draws attention to the importance of a deepened problematisation of the policy concept, the personal character of the translation, and to the fact that translation processes are always tied to local contexts. Policy translation should be seen as an open, continuous process, never independent of the societal distribution of power. In this article the translation perspective is outlined and illustrated by a detailed case study of the Swedish methadone maintenance treatment programme.

Part III Structure of State Government, 9 The State Legislative Branch

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Williams Robert F
Keyword(s):  
State Government ◽  
Direct Democracy ◽  
State Legislatures ◽  
The State ◽  
State Constitutions ◽  
The People ◽  
Legislative Branch ◽  
State Legislative

This chapter discusses the fact that state constitutions create a legislative branch that is substantially different from the federal Congress. Most importantly, state legislatures exercise reserved, plenary power subject only to limitations in the state or federal Constitutions. The federal Congress, by contrast, exercises enumerated, delegated power. In addition, the state legislatures are subject to a variety of limitations on the process of lawmaking that are contained in state constitutions. The chapter discusses the variety of approaches to judicial enforcement of these procedural limitations. Finally, in a number of states, the state legislature's lawmaking power is shared with the people, who can enact or defeat laws through direct democracy, or the initiative and referendum processes.

The role of super interest groups in public policy diffusion

2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 513-541
Author(s):  
Stephanie L. DeMora ◽  
Loren Collingwood ◽  
Adriana Ninci
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Interest Groups ◽  
Interest Group ◽  
Policy Diffusion ◽  
State Legislatures ◽  
Policy Networks ◽  
Advocacy Coalition Framework ◽  
Field Of Study ◽  
Advocacy Coalition

In recent years scholarship has drawn attention to the role of large multi-issue interest groups in policy networks and in public policy diffusion. This paper develops this field of study by demonstrating empirically the leverage of the ‘sustained organisational influence’ theory of policy diffusion. Specifically, it focuses on the role of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) in diffusing the Stand Your Ground policy across US state legislatures. By comparing ALEC’s template policy to bills introduced and legislation subsequently enacted within state legislatures, we demonstrate that ALEC has positioned itself as a ‘super interest group’, exerting sustained organisational influence across an expanding number of states. In doing so, this paper moves theory beyond the typical advocacy coalition framework that implicitly assumes policymaking occurs discretely among specialists on an issue-by-issue basis. It also highlights the democratic implications of the role of super interest groups in shaping policy behind the scenes.

Intergenerational valuation of fisheries resources can justify long-term conservation: a case study in Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua)

2005 ◽  
Vol 62 (5) ◽  
pp. 1104-1110 ◽  
Author(s):  
C H Ainsworth ◽  
U R Sumaila
Keyword(s):  
Discount Rate ◽  
Gadus Morhua ◽  
Atlantic Cod ◽  
Ecosystem Model ◽  
Conventional Model ◽  
Fisheries Resources ◽  
Optimal Harvest ◽  
Harvest Policies

Where the conventional model of discounting advocates aggressive harvest policies, intergenerational discounting could have been used to render the historic gross overfishing of Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) economically unappealing compared with a more conservative long-term strategy. Under these discounting approaches, we compare the historic harvest trend from 1985 (and projected postcollapse earnings) with theoretical optimal harvest profiles determined by an ecosystem model. The optimal scenarios generate less initial harvest than the historic profile but maintain the resource and provide greater yields over the long term. At a discount rate equal to market interest, we demonstrate that it was more economic under conventional valuation to harvest the cod stock to collapse than it would have been to sustain the population. However, under intergenerational valuation, the sustainable optimal scenarios outperform the actual harvest profile. Application of conventional discounting by fishing consortiums may be partly to blame for depletion, yet management fell short of even that ideal.

Redemption and Exile

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Harper
Keyword(s):  
North Carolina ◽  
Political Power ◽  
State Legislatures ◽  
State Legislators ◽  
The Political ◽  
Racial Justice ◽  
Organized Violence ◽  
Biblical Narratives ◽  
Self Defense

This chapter offers a in-depth case study to describe how black southerners reconciled their hopes forged at emancipation with the collapse of Reconstruction. After a brief moment of political power and progress, black leaders in North Carolina watched as their political enemies regained control of state legislatures and used organized violence to suppress black voting and education. Across the South, black Protestants turned to different biblical narratives to make sense of these setbacks while still maintaining a belief that emancipation foreshadowed God’s plans for a coming era of racial justice. In 1870, North Carolina’s black state legislators used Queen Esther’s story of Jewish persecution in exile to interpret their setbacks as temporary and to suggest specific strategies, including armed self-defense, for living as a minority in a hostile land. Without paying attention to the particulars of these exile stories, historians misinterpret the political aims of black leaders.

Zwitserland en de Europese Ekonomische Gemeenschap (1958-1972) : Een case-study inzake Europese integratie

Res Publica ◽  
1977 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-41
Author(s):  
F. Govaerts
Keyword(s):  
Free Trade ◽  
Psychological Factors ◽  
Direct Democracy ◽  
Free Trade Agreement ◽  
Trade Agreement ◽  
Kennedy Round ◽  
Federal System ◽  
Agricultural Systems ◽  
Commercial Field

Switzerland's attitude towards the EEC is typical of the new foreign policy adopted by that country in 1947 under the heading «Neutrality and Solidarity».A number of centrifugal factors (the EEC is regarded as the centre or the pole of attraction) have kept Switzerland out of the EEC, although many other factors, economic and commercial in particular, but alsoideological, cultural, politica! and geographical ones tend towards closer ties with the EEC, and have acted as «centripetal» farces. The main «centrifugal» factors were: Swiss neutrality, the federal system and direct democracy, certain economic elements such as the fiscal and agricultural systems, and especially psychological factors including attitudes and ideas concerning the EEC and the consequences of membership.Moreover, timely corrections and adaptations in the international commercial field (EFTA membership, advantages gained from the Kennedy Round, the 1972 Free Trade Agreement with the enlarged EEC) havereduced the necessity to seek a closer relationship with the Community.

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