INITIATIVE AND REFERENDUM 



2993 



INITIATIVE AND REFERENDUM 



be levied among all the people. The courts 

 have declared that such a tax is equally im- 

 posed upon all classes, and that it is neither 

 a direct tax nor a property tax, as those" terms 

 are legally viewed. Usually the law exempts 

 small inheritances from taxation, although in 

 some states all estates above $1,000 come 

 within its operation. The rate is graduated 

 as low as one per cent where the estate is 

 small, increasing to five per cent of large for- 

 tunes. A.E.R. 



INITIATIVE, inish'iativ, AND REFER- 

 ENDUM, refer en' dum, political measures de- 

 signed to give the entire body of people of a 

 state or city what amounts to control of all 

 important legislation; wherever they are in 

 force legislative bodies are deprived of inde- 

 pendent action in lawmaking. To initiate is 

 to perform the first act, or to set on foot; the 

 initiative, then, is the power of commencing 

 or of taking the first steps in the making of 

 laws. Referendum is derived from rejer, and 

 means to bear or carry back; the word, then, 

 relates to laws duly passed by legislative bodies 

 which are referred back to the people for 

 approval before they can become effective. 

 Initiative and referendum principles as usually 

 written into the statutes do not entirely take 

 the place of the lawmaking body, but rather 

 hold a steadying hand over legislation. Taken 

 with the newer political principle, the recall 

 (which see), the three represent the most ad- 

 vanced theories of self-government in the di- 

 rection of restoring power to the people which 

 heretofore has been wholly delegated to their 

 representatives. 



The initiative is a comparatively recent de- 

 velopment, but the referendum has been em- 

 ployed with success under varying political 

 conditions for years. Since 1874 it has been a 

 part of Switzerland's basic law, and in that 

 country popular control of legislation has 

 reached its highest perfection. In two Swiss 

 cantons the referendum has been in force since 

 the sixteenth century. 



Australia and New Zealand, by adopting the 

 principles of the initiative and referendum in 

 1901, at the time of confederation, gave evi- 

 dence of advanced political thought. In the 

 home government of Great Britain these meas- 

 ures have not yet taken root, although the 

 principles of referendum and recall have been 

 practiced there for many years, particularly 

 with respect to the resignation of the ministry 

 and appeal to the country when a vote show- 

 ing lack of confidence is taken in Parliament. 

 188 



While the initiative and referendum have been 

 discussed in Canada no steps have yet been 

 taken to enact these principles into laws. 



The Referendum. In the United States, 

 since the organization of the government the 

 referendum has been operative to a limited 

 extent on important questions, but not known 

 by such name in those matters to which it has 

 been applied. Amendments to the Federal 

 Constitution, when passed by Congress, must 

 be sent to the states for approval through their 

 legislatures; state constitutions in nearly every 

 instance after being formulated in the usual 

 constitutional conventions have received the 

 approval of a majority of the voters of the 

 new state. Questions involving bond issues 

 and other expenditures of large sums of money 

 are first subjects of legislative action, but must 

 have final approval of a majority of the voters 

 within the jurisdiction affected. These are 

 really instances of referendum votes. 



The adoption of the referendum in its most 

 modern sense furnishes evidence that the gov- 

 ernment is yet in a formative period. There 

 are additional evidences also of this in the 

 demands for other advanced legislation such as 

 is mentioned elsewhere in this article. This 

 measure may be defined as the submission of 

 a state law or city ordinance which has been 

 passed by the duly organized legislative body 

 to a vote of the people for final ratification 

 or rejection. The machinery of the law differs 

 considerably in the various states where the 

 measure is in force; for instance, in South 

 Dakota, where in 1898 the first act of the kind 

 was passed, it is provided that the people 

 may require a referendum vote on every act 

 passed by the legislature, and only five per 

 cent of the voters are required in that state 

 to invoke the referendum on any measure. In 

 other states only specified kinds of laws, such 

 as financial and political measures, are subject 

 to referendum vote, and from ten to twenty- 

 five per cent of the voters must join in petition. 

 The "Oregon Plan," adopted in that state in 

 1899 and extended in 1904, has been the model 

 for other states in framing laws relating to 

 popular control, including not only the initia- 

 tive and referendum, but also the recall, direct 

 primaries, popular vote for United Scates Sena- 

 tors, commission form of government, publicity 

 of campaign expenses and corrupt practice acts. 

 See OREGON, subhead Government. 



The Initiative. The success of the refer- 

 endum naturally invited experiments in the 

 opposite direction. If the people could be 



