Direct democracy continues to grow in importance throughout the United States. Citizens are increasingly using initiatives and referendums to take the law into their own hands, overriding their elected officials to set tax, expenditure, and social policies. John G. Matsusaka s "For the Many or the Few" studies a century of budget data from states and cities to provide the first comprehensive, empirical picture of how direct democracy is changing government policies.
Based on a century of evidence and the most recent theory, Matsusaka argues against the popular belief that initiatives...

How referendums can diffuse populist tensions by putting power back into the hands of the peoplePropelled by the belief that government has slipped out of the hands of ordinary citizens, a surging wave of populism is destabilizing democracies around the world. As John Matsusaka reveals in Let the People Rule, this belief is based in fact. Over