National initiative
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| National Initiative for Democracy | |
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| Founder(s) | Mike Gravel |
|---|---|
| Type | Public |
| Headquarters |  Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| Key people | Mike Gravel (past) Tom Lombardi (present) |
| Area served | United States of America |
| Focus | A government that allows the people to work in partnership with elected officials. |
| Owner | Tom Lombardi |
| Website | NationalInitiative.us |
A national initiative refers to proposals within the United States to allow for ballot initiatives at the federal level. Currently, this is being proposed by Mike Gravel, a former U.S. Senator.
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[edit] National Initiative for Democracy (USA)
The National Initiative for Democracy is an effort by The Democracy Foundation, a non-profit non-governmental organization, to create an initiative process at the federal and in every other jurisdiction of government within the United States. Initiatives, also known as ballot initiatives allow citizens to propose, alter, or nullify laws in conjunction with traditional legislative bodies.
By 2007, 24 US states had an initiative process in place at the state level. The proposed National Initiative process would be similar to those which are already in place at the state level although differing in these significant ways:
- An independent Electoral Trust would supervise over ballot initiatives.
- The Electoral Trust would be responsible for distributing information on proposed measures via any effective means.
- Citizens would be allowed to cast their vote by multiple means, and change their vote as many times as they like until the ballot is closed. Proposed acceptable methods to vote may include telephone, kiosk, or internet website.
[edit] Background
The Democracy Foundation and the Philadelphia II Corporation are non-profit organizations established by former United States Senator Mike Gravel (Democratic Party, Alaska, 1969-1981). These organizations were established in conjunction to promote direct democracy through the enactment of a Constitutional amendment and a related Federal statute. If enacted, the amendment would both assert and codify the peoples' right to make laws, and outline the structure of the Electoral Trust. The "Democracy Act" or federal statute would outline the details with which the constitutional amendment would be implemented.
The Democracy Foundation is the sponsor of the Democracy Amendment and the Democracy Act. It is also responsible for fundraising and educational efforts. The Philadelphia II Corporation was established separately to administer the national vote which the organization hopes to use to enact the proposed legislation through the arguably tendentious and heretofore unused method of 'direct decree by the People'.
Direct Decree
The process of direct decree is the legal basis proposed by The Democracy Foundation with which it hopes to sustain its proposed enactments. Direct decree is premised with the fact that 'people's sovereignty' implemented the US political system by direct decree in the US Constitution. It cites that document's opening clause, "We the people" as evidence of same sovereignty premise. By proposed logical extension, having legally created the government of the United States the people may alter it at any time in similar fashion.
The concept of direct decree further posits that although the authority of the United States Congress is limited by the Constitution, the authority of the People is inherently sovereign and above the authority of the state. By such a theory any measure voted upon and approved by the popular majority of the people is posited to be legally binding and authoritative over all other law.
[edit] History
Although seeking broad public support, the National Initiative for Democracy has been largely spearheaded by the work of Mike Gravel. As well as establishing both The Democracy Foundation and the Philadelphia II corporation, he also authored the bulk of the draft text of the Amendment and Act. Both were vetted publicly at the Democracy Symposium held February 16-18, 2002 in Williamsburg, Virginia.
The effort to enact a national ballot initiate through popular vote is but one in a series of efforts by Mr Gravel toward the same purpose including formal efforts at promulgating constitution amendments in his former capacity as a Senator.
[edit] In popular culture
A proposal for a national initiative is featured as part of the plot in the 1977 film Billy Jack Goes to Washington, the fourth and last of the Billy Jack series. In the film, Billy Jack is appointed a United States Senator. Seeking to keep him out of the Senate on a day when a controversial energy bill is being voted on, another Senator suggests he meet with a grassroots group that day instead. The group is working to pass a national initiative and Billy Jack becomes convinced of their cause. Billy Jack ends up filibustering in the Senate giving a long speech supporting a national initiative.
[edit] Mike Gravel presidential campaign for 2008
The former United States Senator Mike Gravel in 2006 declared his candidacy for the 2008 Democratic nomination for President of the United States motivated primarily by his ardent support for direct democracy and the National Initiative proposal with which he is closely associated.
As adopted by his campaign, the proposal incorporates an Amendment to the US Constitution and an accompanying Federal Law to bring about the proposed ends as a means of lawmaking additional to those means existing and established through the institutions of representative government (ie. Congress and the President).[1]
The 'Democracy Amendment' would:
1) amend the Constitution asserting the legislative powers of the people,
2) outlaw the use of monies not from natural persons in initiative elections,
3) create an Electoral Trust and defines the role of its trustees,
4) legitimize national elections to vote on the enactment of federal laws arising from citizen-initiated legislative proposals ('national initiatives').
The 'Democracy Act' as a federal law would:
1) set out deliberative legislative procedures to be used for initiative lawmaking by citizens,
2) define the powers of the Electoral Trust that administers the legislative procedures on behalf of citizenry,
3) define the electoral threshold that must be reached for 'national initiatives' to become law.
The authority for effecting such a constitutional reform is proposed to derive from Article VII of the US Constitution.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
[edit] Links to The National Initiative
- The Democracy Foundation's National Initiative web site
- Philadelphia 2 website which is conducting the actual vote
- Text of the proposed Amendment
- Text of the proposed Act
[edit] Independent analysis and references
- Direct Democracy and Civic Maturation by Alan Hirsch, Hasting Constitutional Law Review Volume 29, Number 2, Winter 2001
- This page (on the Democracy Foundations's web site) contains a list of papers presented at The Democracy Symposium on February 16, 2002 in Williamsburg, VA, USA
- The Initiative and Referendum Almanac: A Comprehensive Reference Guide to the Initiative and Referendum Process by M. Dane Waters (need page reference)
- Initiative & Referendum Institute at the University of Southern California references The National Initiative
- Analysis of the Amendment and Act done by David Parrish (now deceased). This document remains part of The Democracy Foundation's archives.
