Educated by Initiative: The Effects of Direct Democracy on Citizens and Political Organizations in the American States
"Smith and Tolbert make a remarkable contribution to the literature on direct democracy, focusing on the educative rather than the instrumental effects of the initiative and referendum. As such, this book highlights the importance of direct democracy, and provides new information as well as an alternative theoretical structure to examine its role in American political life."--John Allswang, California State University, Los Angeles"Smith and Tolbert take the claims made by early American advocates of direct democracy and hold them up to the light of rigorous empirical analysis. In so doing, they weave a rich history of the Progressive Era into sophisticated statistical tests that examine how citizens and political organizations respond to opportunities to participate in policy decisions."--Todd Donovan, Western Washington University"The citizen initiative feels good to voters, but inEducated by Initiative, Daniel Smith and Caroline Tolbert demonstrate that it's good for our democracy, too."--Paul Jacobs, President of Citizens in Charge