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CONTENTS
1. INTEREST GROUPS IN THE STATES
Anthony J. Nownes, Clive S. Thomas and Ronald J. Hrebenar. From Politics in the American States: A Comparative Analysis, 9th Edition.
2. THE INITIATIVE PROCESS
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Shaun Bowler and Todd Donovan. From Politics in the American States: A Comparative Analysis, 9th Edition.
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CHAPTER
INTEREST GROUPS IN THE STATES

BY ANTHONY J. NOWNES, CLIVE S. THOMAS AND RONALD J. HREBENAR
Excerpted from Virginia Gray, Russell L. Hanson, POLITICS IN THE AMERICAN STATES: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS, 9TH EDITION (Washington: DC, CQ Press, 2008), pp. 98-126.
CQ Press Custom Books - Page1
chapter 4
Interest Groups in the States
anthony j. nownes, clive s. thomas, and ronald j. hrebenar
Organized interests (also known as interest groups) and their lobbyists are active at all levels of government (local, state, and federal), but they are particularly active at the state level. Historically some interest groupsthe Anaconda Copper Company in Montana and the DuPont Corporation in Delaware come to mindvirtually dominated politics in their states. Even today there are some states in which one group or a small handful of groups dominate state politics. In Utah, for example, the Mormon Church is extraordinarily powerful, while gaming interests are predominant in Nevada, and coal companies loom large in West Virginia. And even in large and diverse states with large and diverse interest group communities (for example, California, New York, Illinois), interest groups are prominent and potent players in state politics. In short, by any measure interest groups are profoundly important and inuential actors in state politics. Thus, to understand state politics fully one must understand interest group politics. In this chapter we provide a brief but comprehensive overview of interest group politics in the states. We begin with a brief prcis on interest groups and lobbying. We dene key terms and concepts and provide a thumbnail sketch of the interest group universe. From here, we examine variations in state interest group systems. We make the general point that interest group politics vary substantially across states. Next, we take a close look at lobbyiststhe individual political actors who act on behalf of interest groups. We pay special attention to what sorts of things lobbyists do to affect government decisions in the states. From here we examine interest group
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power in the states.1 Specically, we provide a typology of interest group systems that categorizes all states according to the amount of power groups wield within them. We also provide new data on which types of groups are most inuential in the states. In our penultimate section, we take a brief look at how states attempt to regulate the behavior of interest groups and to what effect. Finally, we conclude with a few general observations about interest group politics in the states.
the basics: terms and concep ts

There is no single agreed upon denition of interest group. Many studies of state politics dene the term narrowly to include only those groups required to register under state interest group registration laws. Yet many organizations that engage in lobbying are not required to register. The most important are those representing the various levels and agencies of government. Many states do not require public ofcials at any level of government to register as lobbyists. In light of all this, a broad denition of interest group is clearly appropriate: an interest group is an association of individuals or organizations or a public or private institution that attempts to inuence government decisions. This denition embraces the three broad categories of interest groups active in the American states. Types of Interest Groups First, there are traditional membership groups, which are groups made up of individuals promoting economic, social, or political concerns (or some combination thereof) such as senior citizens, environmentalists, schoolteachers, farmers, students, and anti-tax advocates. Among the types of traditional membership groups active in the states are citizen groups (groups that any citizen can join, such as environmental or anti-tax groups), labor unions (for example, state teachers unions), and professional associations (groups comprising individuals active in a single specic profession, such as state bar associations). Second, there are organizational interests, which are organizations composed not of individuals but of organizations such as businesses or labor unions. Among the types of organizational interests active in the states are trade associations (groups of business rms, such as state chambers of commerce) and coalitions of labor unions such as the AFL-CIO. Finally, there are institutional interests, which are not really groups at all, but rather
1. Our assessments of overall interest power and interest group system power (which are found later in this chapter) rely upon data (overall interest power) and assessments (interest group system power) gathered over the past twenty-ve years as part of a study of interest groups in all fty states coordinated by two of this chapters authors (Hrebenar and Thomas) and involving 112 contributing researchers. We conducted the original study between 1983 and 1988 and updated the study ve times in 1990, 1994, 1998, 2002, and 20062007. The results of the original project can be found in Hrebenar and Thomas (1987; 1992; 1993a; 1993b). Syntheses can be found in Thomas and Hrebenar (1990; 1991; 1992; 1996; 1999; 2004). Those contributing to the 20062007 update were: Alabama: Cynthia J. Bowling and Kathleen Hale (Auburn University); Alaska: Clive S. Thomas (University of Alaska, Juneau); Arizona: David R. Berman (Arizona State University); Arkansas: Arthur English (University of
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are nonmembership organizations such as business rms, local governments, hospitals, state and federal agencies, think tanks (that is, research institutes), and universities and colleges. As interest group scholar Robert Salisbury (1984) points out for Washington, D.C., and as state politics experts Virginia Gray and David Lowery (1996, 2001) note for the states, most interest groups active in American politics are institutional entities. Today institutional interests constitute the largest category of interest groups operating in state capitals (Gray and Lowery 2001, 272). Lobbying, and the Concept of the State Interest Group System Interest groups operate in the state political process by lobbying, which is the interaction of an individual, interest group, or interest with government decision makers, either directly or indirectly, for the purpose of inuencing current government decisions or creating a relationship conducive to shaping future government decisions to the benet of that individual, group, or interest. Thus a lobbyist is a person who represents an interest group in an effort to inuence government decisions. The decisions most often targeted by interest groups and their lobbyists are those concerning public policies; but they also include other types of decisions, such as those about who gets elected and appointed to make those policies. Lobbyists include not only those required to register by law but also those representing nonregistered organizations. Finally, there is the concept of a state interest group system. This is the array of groups and organizations, both formal and informal, and the lobbyists who represent them working to affect government decisions within a state. The idea of a state interest group system is an abstraction, of course, because even though there are relations between various groups and lobbyists representing various interests, never do all the groups in a political system act in concert to achieve one goal. However, the characteristics of the interest group systemits size, development, composition, methods of operating, and so onas elements of the socioeconomic and political life of the state relating to the economy, society, and government are particularly important for determining such things as the political power structure, which public policies are pursued and which are not, and the extent of representation and democracy.
Arkansas at Little Rock); California: Timothy A. Hodson (California State University, Sacramento [CSU]), A. G. Block (University of California Sacramento Center [CSUC]), John M. Grifng, (CSUC), and Michael Semler (CSU); Colorado: John A. Straayer (Colorado State University); Connecticut: Sarah M. Morehouse (University of Connecticut, Stamford, retired); Delaware: Joseph A. Pika and Janet B. Johnson (University of Delaware); Florida: Eric Prier and Kevin M. Wagner (Florida Atlantic University); Georgia: Scott H. Ainsworth (University of Georgia); Hawaii: Ira S. Rohter (University of Hawaii, Manoa); Idaho: Jasper M. LiCalzi (Albertson College of Idaho); Illinois: Kent Redeld (University of IllinoisSpringeld); Indiana: David J. Hadley (Wabash College); Iowa: Arthur Sanders (Drake University); Kansas: Allan J. Cigler (University of Kansas); Kentucky: Donald A. Gross (University of Kentucky); Louisiana: Wayne T. Parent (Louisiana State University); Maine: Kenneth T. Palmer (University of Maine, Orono); Maryland: James Gimpel (University of Maryland, College Park); Massachusetts: John C. Berg (Suffolk University); Michigan: Gregory Neddenriep (Northeastern Illinois University, formerly of Western Michigan University); Minnesota: Michael G. Bath (Concordia College); Mississippi: David A. Breaux (Mississippi State University); Missouri: James W. Endersby (University of Missouri, Columbia); Montana: Kenneth L. Weaver (Local Government Associates, Inc., and Montana State University, retired); Nebraska: Loree G. Bykerk and Patrick Hermes (University of Nebraska
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variations in state interest group systems

Interest group activities across the states show many similarities. For example, all fty states have a variety of active interest groups, and all states regulate interest group activity to some extent. Nonetheless, state interest group systems also show important differences. In fact, no two state interest group systems are exactly alike. In this section we examine how and why state interest group systems vary. We begin with three brief case studies, then we use these case studies to highlight some of the ways that state interest group systems differ from one another. We acknowledge that each of our case studies is incomplete. Our goal here is not to tell you everything you need to know about the interest group systems we describe, but rather to highlight some of the ways that state interest group systems differ. After we present our case studies, we examine three factors that help explain variations in state interest group systems. Interest Groups in New York Two things stand out about the New York state interest group system. First, it contains a very large number of groups and lobbyists. How large? In 2006 there were 5,117 lobbyists registered with the [New York Temporary State] Commission [on Lobbying] representing 3,277 clients (New York Temporary State Commission on Lobbying 2007). The New York Temporary State Commission on Lobbying tracks interest groups and lobbyists that lobby local governments as well as state government, so these numbers probably overstate to some extent how many lobbyists and interest groups are active in Albany (the state capital). Nonetheless, it is clear that few states are home to as many interest groups and lobbyists as New York. Second, the New York state interest group system contains a large diversity of groups. For example, among the most active interest groups in 2006 in New York were citizen groups (Natural Resources Defense Council), labor unions (New York State United Teachers, the Public Employees Federation), professional associations (Medical Society of the State of New York, the New York State Trial Lawyers Association), trade associations (Greater New York Hospital Association), and, of course, business rms (Forest City Ratner Companies [a real estate developer] and Verizon)
Omaha); Nevada: Eric B. Herzik (University of Nevada, Reno); New Hampshire: Michelle Anne Fistek and Robert Egbert (Plymouth State University); New Jersey: Barbara A. Salmore (Eagleton Institute, Rutgers University); New Mexico: Timothy B. Krebs (University of New Mexico); New York: David L. Cingranelli (Binghamton University, SUNY); North Carolina: Andrew Taylor (North Carolina State University); North Dakota: Theodore B. Pedeliski and Lloyd B. Omdahl (University of North Dakota, both are now retired); Ohio: Chase M. Ritenauer (University of Akron); Oklahoma: Jason F. Kirksey (Oklahoma State University); Oregon: William M. Lunch (Oregon State University); Pennsylvania: G. Terry Madonna (Franklin & Marshall College); Rhode Island: Maureen Moakley (University of Rhode Island); South Carolina: Robert E. Botsch (University of South Carolina at Aiken); South Dakota: Robert V. Burns (South Dakota State University); Tennessee: Anthony J. Nownes (University of Tennessee, Knoxville); Texas: Keith E. Hamm (Rice University); Utah: Ronald J. Hrebenar and Dan Jones (University of Utah); Vermont: Anthony Gierzynski (University of Vermont); Virginia: John T. Whelan (University of Richmond); Washington: Stephen F. Johnson (Washington Public Utilities Districts Association); West Virginia: Daniel Masters (University of North Carolina, Wilmington, formerly of Marshall University) and Allan S. Hammock (West Virginia University); Wisconsin: David G. Wegge (St. Norbert College); Wyoming: James D. King (University of Wyoming).
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(New York Temporary State Commission on Lobbying 2007). As interest group scholar Rogan Kersh (2006, 105) notes:
From the Uniformed Fireghters Association and the Neighborhood Retail Alliance (representing bodegas, greengrocers, and independent supermarkets) to the Coalition for the Homeless and the New York Nannies Association, every imaginable group, concern, or collection of like-minded individuals occasionally seeks to inuence New Yorks government. . . .
It is hard to say just how powerful interest groups are in New York. On the one hand, it is clear that state government ofcialsthe governor, members of the state legislature, and executive agency ofcialsare important players in state politics; they have autonomous bases of power and are anything but subordinate to lobbyists and interest groups. On the other hand, the state was racked by several lobbying scandals in the 1990s and early 2000s, which suggests that lobbyists are puissant powerbrokers capable at least on occasion of bending state government to their whims. For example, in 2003 a developer named Tamir Sapir admitted to a panel of state legislators that he had paid a lobbyist (former U.S. senator Alfonse DAmato) $500,000 to lobby a state agency to help him secure a $230 million loan to continue construction on the MTAs [Metropolitan Transit Authority] new headquarters. . . . (Kersh 2006, 103). On the whole, it appears that interest groups in New York are important but not dominant players. As for which specic groups are most powerful, it appears that the diversity of the states interest group community keeps any one group or handful of groups from dominating. Although it is true that some interest groups are more powerful than others (our impression is that business giant Verizon, the Healthcare Association of New York State, and state public employee unions are particularly powerful), it appears that no specic group consistently has the upper hand and can always count on getting its way in state politics. Nonetheless, as is the case in most states, business rms and trade associations are extremely powerful. Interest Groups in Oregon According to the Center for Public Integrity (2006), in 2005 a total of 607 lobbyists and 815 lobbyist employers registered to lobby in Oregon, and lobbyist spending totaled $24.4 million. These numbers put Oregon in the middle of the pack among states for level of interest group activity. Oregon, like New York, is home to a large variety of interests. In their assessment of interest group activity in Oregon, Russ Dondero and William Lunch (2005, 8486, 9596) note that business rms (for example, Regence Blue Cross Blue Shield of Oregon),2 citizen groups (Oregon Taxpayers United), coalitions of government entities (League of Oregon Cities), government entities (the City of Portland),3 labor unions (Oregon Education Asso2. This is our example, not Dondero and Lunchs. 3. This is our example, not Dondero and Lunchs.
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ciation), professional associations (Oregon Bar Association, Oregon Medical Association), and trade associations (Associated Oregon Industries) all exercise considerable power in state politics.4 In short, Oregon has a moderately large, relatively diverse interest group community. As for the power of interest groups, close observers have concluded that interest groups wield considerable power in Oregon state politics. In recent years, for example, conservative populist citizen groups including Oregon Taxpayers United and Oregon Citizens for a Sound Economy have set the scal agenda for both state and local governments . . . and thus are extremely powerful (Dondero and Lunch 2005, 95). Recently, one prominent vehicle for interest group inuence has been the state initiative processa process that allows interest groups (and citizens) to place measures directly on the ballot for citizen approval. But even within ordinary government channels, conservative populist citizen groups as well as more liberalleaning labor unions, environmental citizen groups, and Native American tribal organizations have successfully pressed their cases. While there is some diversity in the Oregon interest group community, clearly some groups are much more powerful than others. Dondero and Lunch (2005, 95) note that conservative populist groups, particularly Oregon Taxpayers United (OTU), are considered by political insiders to be among the most inuential in Oregon. . . . These conservative populist organizations have successfully fought tax increases and increased business regulation. In the second tier of inuence are general business groups (especially Associated Oregon Industries, a peak business trade association) (Dondero and Lunch 2005, 9597). Finally, a variety of other organizations including individual business rms in the health care industry, the Oregon Education Association, the City of Portland, and several environmental groups have won important victories in recent years. Interest Groups in Arkansas According to the Center for Public Integrity (2006), in 2005, 429 lobbyists and 587 lobbyist employers registered to lobby in Arkansas. Arkansas consistently ranks among the bottom 20 percent of states in level of interest group activity (Blair and Barth 2005, 127). Although it is true that Arkansas is home to a variety of types of interest groups, it appears that interest groups representing business rms and trade associations loom larger in Arkansas than they do in either New York or Oregon. Close observers of Arkansas politics note that virtually all of the most powerful interest groups in the state are business organizations and that there is a noticeable dearth of powerful labor unions and citizen groups in the state (Blair and Barth 2005, 129). When it comes to overall levels of power, there is little doubt that interest groups are very powerful in Arkansas politics. It appears that lobbyists and interest groups in Arkansas exercise considerably more power than lobbyists and interest groups in
4. For information on which groups are most active in Oregon, see also Oregon Government Standards and Practices Commission (2007).
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many other states, especially states outside the South, including New York and Oregon. When it comes to individual group power, business rms including Southwestern Bell, Entergy (a large utility), and Alltel (a telephone company) as well as trade associations including the Arkansas Poultry Federation and the Arkansas Bankers Association appear to be the most powerful (Blair and Barth 2005, 129130). Beyond this, the occasional government agency (for example, the Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department), labor union (Arkansas Education Association), and citizen group (the NAACP) is capable of exerting some inuence over state policymakers.5 Summary of Three Case Studies Our three mini case studies make four things clear. First, there are similarities in interest group systems across the states. In all three states, scores of interest groups are active, interest groups wield considerable power, and there is some diversity in interest group representation. Second, there are differences in levels of interest group activity across states. For example, New York has more lobbyists and interest groups than Oregon, which has more lobbyists and interest groups than Arkansas. Third, some interest group systems are more diverse than others. New Yorks interest group community shows considerable diversity, Oregons a bit less, and Arkansas shows relatively little. Finally, the relative balance of power between types of interest groups varies among states. While conservative populist organizations are prevailing powers in Oregon, business rms and trade associations are the dominant group players in Arkansas, and group power is somewhat dispersed in New York (although business rms are very powerful there, too).6 Similarities and Differences in State Interest Group Systems Our case studies beg the following question: What factors account for differences in state interest group systems? We will briey examine three of the factors. Economy. First, there is the nature of a states economy. In general, the larger a states economy is (as measured by its gross state product), the more interest groups (and thus more lobbyists) it has. This is the case because, as interest group scholars David Lowery and Holly Brasher (2004, 87) note: States with large economies are likely to have more farms, rms, environmentalists, and every other type of potential member or sponsor of organizations than smaller states. Thus one of the reasons that New York has so many more interest groups than Arkansas and Oregon is that New Yorks economy is so much larger than the economies of these other two states. It is important to note, however, that the relationship between the size of a states economy and the number of interest groups active within it tends not to be linear. David Lowery and Virginia Gray (1993, 1994) note that the relationship is roughly linear up to a point, but that at some point economic growth ceases to have much impact on the size of a states interest group community.
5. We base this on the work of Blair and Barth (2005) as well as our own analysis of state interest group activity. 6. We should also note that state interest group systems change, sometimes rapidly. Thus, what is true in each of our three states today may not be true next year or even next month.
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The nature of a states economy also affects the diversity of interest groups active within it. It is no surprise that states with diverse economies have more diverse interest group communities than states with not-so-diverse economies. New York, for example, is a more economically diverse state (it has large numbers of farms as well as large numbers of investment banks) than either Arkansas or Oregon, and this is one of the reasons it has a more diverse interest group community. Political Culture. Another factor that accounts for differences in state interest group systems is state political culture. Two of us (Hrebenar and Thomas 1987; 1992; 1993a; 1993b) conducted a fty-state study of interest groups during the 1980s and 1990s and found that political culture profoundly affects the nature of state interest group systems. Take, for example, New York. Daniel Elazar (1984) maintains that New York has a combination individualistic and moralistic political culture. This helps to explain why so many interest groups are active in New York state politicscitizen participation is viewed by many as legitimate, and all sorts of citizens join interest groups. However, it also explains the periodic lobbying scandals that have rocked New York over the years. There is an undercurrent of cynicism about politics in New York, and every now and then this manifests itself in lobbyist chicanery. As for Arkansas, its traditionalist political culture explains a lot about its interest group system. Many citizens simply choose not to participate in state politics. This partially explains the relatively low number of interest groups active in Arkansas. Moreover, the lack of citizen interest and involvement in Arkansas politics explains why business rms dominate the states interest group system. Because citizens view politics as somewhat illegitimate and as the purview of good ol boy elites, there are few large individual membership groups (citizen groups and labor unions, for example) to challenge the views of the business elites who run business rms and trade associations in the state. Finally, Oregons moralistic political culture helps explain its unique interest group system. First, it explains why Oregon politics are relatively cleanover the years, there have been few lobbying scandals in the state. In addition, it explains why citizen groupsespecially populist conservative groups and environmental groupsare so prominent in the states interest group system. Politics are viewed by Oregonians as a legitimate enterprise, and citizens of all kinds view political involvement as acceptable and perhaps even admirable. Oregons moralistic culture also helps explain why the state has such a wide variety of active interest groups. Governmental Activity. An additional factor that accounts for differences in state interest group systems is the level of governmental activity, which we dene here as the extent to which a states government is active in the lives of the states citizens. One measure of level of governmental activity is state government spending per capita. In 2004 (a recent year for which we were able to nd reliable data for all three states) per capita state government spending in New York amounted to $11,375 (Public Policy Institute of New York State, Inc. 2006). The gures for Oregon and Arkansas were $7,857 and $5,936, respectively (Public Policy Institute of New York State, Inc. 2006). These spending gures indicate that the New York state government is much larger and more active than the governments of either Oregon or Arkansas.
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In other words, the state government of New York regulates more activities and has more, and more expensive, social programs than the government of either Oregon or Arkansas. This is important because scholars have found that government activity often acts as a spur to group activity. If the government begins to regulate nursing homes, for example, nursing home operators become politically active to keep abreast of new government regulations and to try to affect future regulations. Similarly, if a state government adopts new environmental regulations, citizens who are interested in environmental protection are likely to band together to press their concerns on state government (Loomis and Cigler 2007, 1216). In short, the large size of the New York state government helps explain why New York has such a large and diverse interest group community. In contrast with New York, Arkansas has a small and rather homogenous interest group community. Part of the reason for this is that the government of Arkansas is relatively small and inactive. Oregon, which has a larger state government than Arkansas but a smaller state government than New York, has a larger and more diverse interest group community than Arkansas and a smaller and less diverse interest group community than New York.
lobbying and lobbyists in the states

The reason political scientists and students of politics study interest groups is that they are political actorsthey seek to affect what state government does. How do interest groups attempt to affect state government decisions? And who are state lobbyists, and what do they do? In this section, we address these and other questions related to lobbying and lobbyists in the states. Techniques of Lobbying If there is one thing we have learned about lobbying in the states, it is that lobbyists have a large number of techniques at their disposal. State lobbyists utilize three main types of lobbying techniques: direct techniques, such as testifying before the legislature or meeting with bureaucrats, that involve direct contact with government ofcials; indirect techniques that target citizens rather than government ofcials; and electoral techniques that are designed to affect the outcome of an election. To explore the full range of techniques state lobbyists use, we collected some new data on lobbying in the states. Specically, during the summer of 2006, as part of a larger study, we surveyed 266 lobbyists in two statesOhio and West Virginia.7 We asked respondents to tell us which of a large number of lobbying techniques they used; the results are shown in Table 4-1.
7. We used lobbyist registration lists to construct a list of lobbyists in each state. For West Virginia, we sent surveys to 363 lobbyistsevery lobbyist on the list for whom (we believed) we had a current and correct address. For Ohio, we randomly selected 800 lobbyists from a larger list. In the end, we received 170 completed surveys from Ohio and 96 from West Virginia. Taking into account surveys that were returned for various reasons, our response rates were 28 percent for Ohio (196 surveys were returned as undeliverable) and 27 percent for West Virginia (10 surveys were returned as undeliverable).

Table 4-1 Lobbying Techniques Used by Lobbyists in Two States
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Percentage using this technique Overall Technique a 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. Meeting personally with state legislators Meeting personally with state legislative staff Helping to draft legislation Meeting personally with executive agency personnel Meeting personally with members of the governors staff Entering into coalitions with other organizations Testifying at legislative committee hearings Submitting written testimony to legislative committees Talking with people from the media Inspiring letter-writing, telephone, or e-mail campaigns to state legislators Submitting written comments on proposed rules/regulations Making personal monetary contributions to candidates for ofce Helping to draft regulations, rules, or guidelines Interacting with special liaison ofces within the governors ofce Issuing press releases Engaging in informal contacts with state legislative staff Engaging in informal contacts with state legislators Serving on advisory committees and/or boards Meeting personally with the governor Working on campaigns for candidates c Inspiring letter-writing, telephone, or e-mail campaigns to the governor Writing op-ed pieces for newspapers Testifying at executive agency hearings Making personal monetary contributions to political parties c Engaging in regulatory negotiations Campaigning for or against a state initiative or referendum Doing favors for legislators Holding press conferences Doing favors for legislative staff (N=266)b 98 97 91 90 89 89 88 83 82 78 77 77 77 72 72 67 65 65 64 62 62 60 59 54 53 51 50 49 46 Ohio (N=170)b 97 95 86 86 84 86 88 86 79 74 71 74 73 65 69 58 57 61 50 58 58 54 56 53 49 52 50 44 43 West Virginia (N=96)b 99 99 98 97 97 96 90 78 87 87 87 81 84 83 78 84 79 73 89 70 68 70 63 56 60 49 49 58 52
(table continues on next page)
As Table 4-1 shows, each of the top ve most commonly used lobbying techniques is a direct lobbying technique. The top ve are: meeting personally with state legislators (98 percent), meeting personally with state legislative staff (97 percent), helping to draft legislation (91 percent), meeting personally with executive agency personnel (90 percent), and meeting personally with members of the governors staff (89 percent). Another two of the top ten lobbying techniques are direct techniques testifying at legislative committee hearings (88 percent) and submitting written testimony to legislative committees (83 percent). Moreover, many other direct lobbying techniques such as submitting written comments on proposed rules and regulations; engaging in informal contacts (for example, wining, dining) with state legislators; engaging in informal contacts with state legislative staff; and helping to draft regulations, rules, or guidelines are used by the vast majority of lobbyists surveyed.
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Table 4-1
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Continued
Percentage using this technique Overall Ohio (N=170) b West Virginia (N=96) b
Technique a 30. Engaging in informal contacts with members of the governors staff 31. Inspiring letter-writing, telephone, or e-mail campaigns to executive agencies 32. Appearing on radio programs 33. Delivering PAC money (that is, money from an organization rather than personal funds) to candidates for ofcec 34. Appearing on television programs 35. Petitioning for a rule-making 36. Filing suit or otherwise engaging in litigation 37. Running advertisements in the media 38. Seeking permits from executive agencies 39. Engaging in informal contacts with the governor 40. Seeking to put a measure on the ballot as an initiative 41. Engaging in protests and/or demonstrations 42. Doing favors for members of the governors staff 43. Doing favors for executive agency personnel 44. Doing favors for the governor 45. Giving gifts to state legislators 46. Giving gifts to state legislative staff
S O U R C E : Authors survey.
(N=266) b
47 46 46 43 43 39 37 31 25 22 19 19 17 15 14 9 8
39 42 43 41 38 38 34 23 21 7 21 16 12 13 8 10 6
60 54 52 47 51 43 44 44 31 48 15 25 26 19 25 7 13
N O T E : The numbers in the table represent the percentage of respondents who reported using the lobbying technique in question. These percentages include all responses of occasionally and regularly. To conserve space, we did not report the percentage of lobbyists who engaged in several other techniques about which we asked.
a. We used the following survey item to construct this table (for all techniques except 20, 24, and 33): As you know, lobbyists use many different techniques to try to inuence what goes on in state government. Below you will nd a list of such techniques. Looking at the list, please tell us how often you use each techniquenever, occasionally, or regularly. b. N may vary by survey item owing to missing data. c. For techniques 20, 24, and 33, we used the following survey item: We know that lobbyists differ in the extent to which they get involved in elections and campaigns. Below you will nd some electoral activities. Please indicate how often you engage in each of the following activities-never, occasionally, or regularly.
In short, the most commonly used lobbying techniques are direct lobbying techniquesthose that entail direct face-to-face contact with government ofcials. As for indirect techniques, Table 4-1 shows that the most common such technique used by lobbyists in the survey is talking with people from the media (82 percent). The other most commonly used indirect lobbying techniques are inspiring letter-writing, telephone, or e-mail campaigns to state legislators (78 percent) and issuing press releases (72 percent). Another less common but still widespread indirect technique is inspiring letter-writing, telephone, or e-mail campaigns to the governor (62 percent). The most common electoral lobbying technique is making personal monetary contributions to candidates for ofce (77 percent).8 This suggests that money, while
8. Here and in Table 4-1 we distinguish between the making of a personal contribution to a candidate or a party and the delivery of a PAC contribution (money from an interest group) to a candidate or party.
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not the primary weapon in the lobbyists arsenal, is still an important one. It is not exactly clear what money buys a lobbyist, but the fact that contributing money is so common suggests that it does indeed buy something. Working on campaigns for candidates (62 percent) is also a relatively common electoral lobbying technique, as is making personal monetary contributions to political parties (54 percent). Finally, one of the lobbying techniques we asked our respondents about does not t easily into one of our three categoriesentering into coalitions. This is an almost universal technique (89 percent). Rise of Indirect and Media Lobbying. For many years it was the conventional wisdom that direct techniques dominated the state lobbying business. In fact, it is fair to say that until well into the 1970s direct techniques were virtually the only kinds of techniques that many state lobbyists used. Table 4-1 shows that things have changed in the past thirty-ve years. While the use of direct lobbying techniques is still more widespread than the use of indirect techniques, it is clear that indirect techniques are now part and parcel of the typical state lobbyists tool kit. Although indirect lobbying has been around literally for centuries, it has exploded in the states since the mid-1970s. Indirect lobbying is today as big a part of state politics as it is of national politics. Perhaps even more surprising than the prominence of indirect lobbying is the prominence of media techniquesthat is, indirect lobbying techniques that involve the news media. Well over half of our respondents reported talking with people from the media, issuing press releases, and writing op-ed pieces for newspapers. Moreover, nearly half of our respondents reported holding press conferences (49 percent), appearing on radio programs (46 percent), and appearing on television programs (43 percent). In short, while state lobbying used to be limited primarily to direct inside techniques, it is now a highly variegated phenomenon that comprises numerous indirect and media techniques. Relevance and Value of Personal Connections. Despite the prevalence and growth of indirect and media lobbying, however, Table 4-1 reminds us that state lobbying remains an intensely personal business. The essence of the art of lobbying is still interpersonal communication. As Table 4-1 shows, the most common lobbying techniques are still direct techniques. Previous studies of lobbying suggest that even with the rise of indirect lobbying techniques, lobbyists believe that personally meeting with government ofcials is still the most effective way to inuence government decisions (Nownes 2006, 201202; Rosenthal 2001, chap. 6). Three important general points about the techniques of inuence that state lobbyists use need to be emphasized. First, as Table 4-1 makes clear, state lobbyists lobby all three branches of state government as well as the public. While most people think of lobbyists as focusing their efforts on the legislature, our data (and lots of previous studies) show that lobbyists lobby the executive branch, the judicial branch, and the public as well as the legislature. Second, we wish to emphasize that monetary contributions to candidates (and to political parties) are less common than many people think. Popular and media treatments of lobbying and lobbyists emphasize the degree to which lobbyists rely upon money to get what they want.
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Indeed, the prototypical lobbyist is portrayed in the media as a rather corpulent man carrying a large sack of money. The data we present here indicate that although many state lobbyists do indeed contribute money to elected ofcials and political parties, monetary contributions are simply not all that important to most lobbyists. Indeed, none of the top ten most commonly used lobbying techniques we studied has anything to do with the exchange of money. Moreover, contributing money to candidates is far less common than a slew of other more mundane and less controversial lobbying techniques. Finally, we wish to note that the typical lobbyist does not tend to specialize in one or a small group of lobbying techniques. Instead, the typical lobbyist tends to use literally dozens of lobbying techniques to get the job done (Nownes and Freeman 1998b, 93). In fact, studies of state lobbying consistently show that most lobbyists do anything and everything they can to affect government decisions. This means using a variety of different techniques, meeting with a variety of government ofcials (and perhaps citizens), and refusing to rule out the use of any specic lobbying technique. Who Are the Lobbyists? Thus far, we have said little about the actual people who lobby state government the state lobbyists. There are various types and categories of state lobbyists, an important fact because different types of lobbyists bring different assets and liabilities to the table and are perceived differently by state government ofcials and the public at large. These perceptions affect the extent of a lobbyists ability to affect government decisions as well as the way a lobbyist accomplishes the job. There are many ways to categorize lobbyists (for example, full-time vs. part-time, male vs. female). Here, in an attempt to understand state lobbyists more fully, we divide lobbyists into ve categories (Hrebenar and Thomas 1987; 1992; 1993a; 1993b). Contract Lobbyists. These are the hired guns, lobbyists who are not employees of a single organization, but instead have a number of clients . . . (Rosenthal 2001, 18). Contract lobbyists are the types of lobbyists about whom the public hears the most, primarily because their high salaries, cultivated connections, and presumed ability to inuence government make good copy for news organizations. Some contract lobbyists are independent agents, while others work for public relations rms, law rms, or consulting rms. While contract lobbyists tend to get more attention than other types of lobbyists, we estimate that they typically comprise well under 15 percent of the lobbyist community in most states. In-House Lobbyists. These lobbyists work for a single specic organization. Many in-house lobbyists have duties and responsibilities that extend beyond lobbying (Rosenthal 2001, 18). In the ranks of in-house lobbyists are the executive directors, presidents, and employees of a virtual plethora of organizations including environmental groups, state AFL-CIO afliates, school board associations, state chambers of commerce, trade associations, state bar associations, and business rms. In-house lobbyists were the rst types of lobbyists to appear on the state political scene. In the mid-1800s, in-house lobbyists for railroads and other early business interests
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became powerful actors in a number of states. Today there is no question that most lobbyists in the states (perhaps as many as 50 percent) are in-house lobbyists. And this probably has always been the case. Because the term lobbyist has negative connotations, in-house lobbyists often go by other honorics such as legislative liaison, government relations specialist, representative, agent, or government affairs specialist. Volunteer Lobbyists. These lobbyists are often referred to as citizen lobbyists or cause lobbyists, and as their title implies, they are often ordinary citizens who work for small single-issue, service provision, charitable, social welfare, or community groups on a not-for-pay basis. Many groups use volunteer lobbyists because they cannot afford professional in-house or contract lobbyists. Many others use volunteer lobbyists in addition to professional lobbyists, hoping that ordinary citizens can bring a certain legitimacy and immediacy to their interests and goals. We estimate that 1020 percent of state lobbyists are volunteer lobbyists. Government Lobbyists. These people are employees of state, local, or federal agencies or entities who, as part of or all of their jobs, represent the agency or entity before state government (for example, the state legislature). Examples of government lobbyists include the head of a state agency, the legislative liaison who works for a public university, or the mayor of a city or county. Technically, virtually all government lobbyists are in-house lobbyists, but we give them their own category here because they are unique among lobbyiststhey represent one part or entity of government to some other part or entity of government. Government lobbyists comprise approximately 2535 percent of lobbyists in most states. Private-Individual Lobbyists. These lobbyists act on their own behalf, not on behalf of an organization as an ofcial representative.9 Private-individual lobbyists generally lobby for pet projects or direct personal benets, or for or against a specic policy proposal they are particularly interested in. It is difcult to say just how many state lobbyists are private-individual lobbyists, but we estimate that such lobbyists comprise 5 percent or less of state lobbyists. Lobbyists Skills and Roles Research suggests that different types of lobbyists have different skill sets. Typical contract lobbyists, for example, possess specialized knowledge of certain parts or processes of government (for example, the budget process, the inner workings of a specic state agency), close personal connections with state government ofcials, or a combination of areas of expertise (Rosenthal 2001, chap. 2). Many contract lobbyists are former government ofcials who learn about the political system and develop close ties with government ofcials while they serve in government (Rosenthal 2001, chap. 2). In most cases, contract lobbyists are facilitators of dialogue between their clients and public ofcials. Contract lobbyists often have considerable
9. Many political scientists do not consider private-individual lobbyists to be lobbyists at all. We mention them here because they are active and occasionally inuential in all fty states.
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inuence over how their clients disburse campaign funds. In fact, many contract lobbyists organize fund-raisers for candidates and work on behalf of candidates during election season. The major political asset of most in-house lobbyists is an unequaled knowledge of a particular issue. An in-house lobbyist for a telecommunications rm, for example, may not be particularly well-connected politically and may not know the rules of the state legislature inside and out, but such a person probably knows more about the telecommunications industry and state telecommunications law than almost anyone else in the state capital. Similarly, an in-house lobbyist for an environmental group may not be chums with state legislative leaders or the head of the state agency that enforces (and may write) environmental regulations, but probably knows a great deal about state environmental conditions and the disposition of proposed environmental laws and regulations. Like contract lobbyists, in-house lobbyists often make monetary contributions to candidates for state ofce. They also (if they represent membership organizations such as citizen groups, labor unions, professional associations, or trade associations) mobilize their members whenever possible to put pressure on government ofcials. Government lobbyists are uniquely situated in state politics. They are often wellconnected (after all, they themselves are government employees), they often have specialized knowledge of the government (especially the part of government in which they work), and they often possess tremendous knowledge of the policy area(s) in which they work. A lobbyist who works for a state university, for example, may know many state government ofcials personally, may know a great deal about how state education policy is made, and may have an encyclopedic knowledge of state higher education policies. Government lobbyists also often use their constituent groups to their advantage. For example, a lobbyist for the state department of education may work (unofcially) with state parent-teacher groups and other client groups (such as those representing handicapped or gifted children) to secure increased funding for public education. As for volunteer lobbyists, they usually rely upon moral persuasion, coupled with the mobilization of their membership, to sell their causes. For example, a volunteer lobbyist for an anti-abortion group may meet with state legislators and argue that abortion is a sin. This volunteer may also encourage the groups members to send e-mails or letters to the same state legislators stating their opposition to abortion. Volunteers generally lack the insider status of the government lobbyist, the connections and inside knowledge of the political process of the contract lobbyist, and the technical expertise of the in-house lobbyist. The volunteer lobbyist does, however, have a certain amount of legitimacy that other types of lobbyists do not have. A plucky volunteer lobbyist may be able to make up for some of these deciencies with hard work and perseverance. Finally, private-individual lobbyists, unless they are state bigwigs (celebrities or moguls), have few assets at their disposal. The private-individual lobbyist must rely primarily upon perseverance and powers of persuasion.
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Lobbyists Personal Characteristics Few studies take a close look at the makeup of the lobbyist universe in the states, but it seems clear that the typical state lobbyist is a white male in his 40s or 50s with government experience. We do not have particularly reliable estimates, but the evidence suggests that less than 25 percent of state lobbyists are women, and very few (probably fewer than one in ten) are nonwhite (on female lobbyists, see Nownes and Freeman 1998a). In addition, the typical state lobbyist is well-educated and well-paid. In short, in all fty states people who are not white, not male, and not particularly well-educated and who do not have government experience are profoundly underrepresented in state lobbyist communities. Does this matter? The answer to this question depends on your point of view. On the one hand, many critical observers of state politics see this as a problem. An elite monolithic lobbyist community, they maintain, is bound to underrepresent the views of large numbers of people, especially people who are already disadvantaged in society. This, in the end, might bias public policy toward the interests of well-off white men. On the other hand, less critical observers note that lobbying is like most other highly professional occupationsit is dominated by well-educated, afuent, ambitious individuals. Moreover, some observers maintain that well-educated and afuent Americans are not precluded from representing the interests of people who are not like them poor people, for example. In the end, the question of whether the biased nature of state lobbyist communities is a bad thing is an open one. The Bottom Line on Lobbying: Lobbying = Information Despite considerable variation in both lobbying and lobbyists, there is one thing that virtually all state lobbyists have in common: they rely primarily upon information to make their cases. A lobbyists stock in trade is information. In other words, a lobbyist at work whether lobbying a government ofcial or the publicalmost always provides information to the target of the lobbying, and the information is designed to convince the recipient that the lobbyist is right. The assumption that lobbyists are primarily information providers is at the center of political scientist John R. Wrights communications theory of lobbying (Wright 1996; see also Esterling 2004). Wrights contribution is vital for a full understanding of lobbying, so we will discuss it here. In Interest Groups and Congress: Lobbying, Contributions, and Inuence, Wright (1996, 82) takes a close look at lobbying in Congress and begins by assuming that legislators have three goals. The rst goal is reelection. Reelection is the overriding goal because a legislator who is not reelected to ofce cannot achieve any additional goals. Second, legislators want to make good public policy. Legislators, despite their bad reputations, generally want to make policy that benets the people they serve. The third and nal goal of the legislator is to exercise inuence within the legislature. Legislators, Wright notes, desire power within the legislative body because they want to be able to propose and pass legislation. Without power it is hard for legislators to accomplish anything.
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After Wright establishes that legislators generally have three overarching goals, he argues that legislators are forced to pursue these goals in a very uncertain and everchanging environment (Wright 1996, 82):
The attainment of these goals is complicated by the fact that legislators cannot be certain about how voters will react to their policy decisions, how policies will actually work once implemented, or what kinds of political complications might arise during the legislative process.
In short, legislators are in a bind; while they have explicit and straightforward goals, they do not know precisely how to achieve these goals. According to Wright, this is where lobbyists come in. The job of a lobbyist is to provide information to government ofcialsinformation that will (hopefully) affect the way these government ofcials behave. The information that lobbyists provide to government ofcials is designed to reduce uncertainty and help legislators learn how best to achieve their goals. Wright (1996, 75) sums it up like this: lobbyists, he says, achieve inuence in the legislative process by strategically providing information to change or reinforce legislators beliefs about legislative outcomes, the operational effects of policies, and the electoral ramications of their actions. Information: How Lobbyists Use It. To show you what Wright is talking about, we present a brief example: A member of your state legislature, lets say a state senator, is considering how to vote on a pending bill that bans a certain type of handgun in your state. In considering the upcoming vote, the senator may wonder: How do my constituents feel about this bill? If I vote for the bill, will it hurt me or help me when I stand for reelection next year? What are the policy implications of the bill? Will it lead to an increase in crime? Or will it lead to a decrease? Does the bill actually have a chance to pass? How close is the vote likely to be? Will my vote even matter? When the bill goes to the oor of the state senate, will I have a chance to offer an amendment? How are other senators planning to vote? Who are the bills sponsors and cosponsors? In sum, this hypothetical state senator is likely to ask a variety of questions while trying to decide how to vote. Now lets imagine there is a lobbyist in the middle of all this. In our example, lets make this lobbyist one who supports the gun ban. The lobbyist, according to the communications theory of lobbying, tries to be successful (that is, tries to convince people to support the ban) by providing information to help legislators (like our senator) answer the myriad questions they face. For example, the anti-gun lobbyist may present poll results to the senator that show that the senators constituents support the gun ban. In addition, the lobbyist may present sophisticated data showing that gun bans decrease crime and violence by taking guns out of the hands of violent criminals. Finally, the lobbyist might present information to the senator suggesting that all the other members of the senators political party support the ban and would be upset if the senator opposed it. It is important to note that while the anti-gun lobbyist is hard at work, a pro-gun lobbyist may be just as hard at work as well. For example, the pro-gun lobbyist may
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be presenting the senator with conicting informationinformation that, for example, shows that the senators constituents actually oppose gun control, that gun bans actually increase crime, and that many other state senators oppose gun bans. In both cases, however, the idea is the same: the lobbyist attempts to win by providing information to government ofcials. Information: What Kinds Lobbyists Use. Although Wright applies his theory only to legislative lobbying, his basic theory can be applied to virtually all state government ofcials as well as to the public. Specically, we can state the communications theory of lobbying generally as follows: when state lobbyists lobby, they seek to affect state government decisions by providing information to the people they lobby. Lobbyists provide three types of information in particular. First, they provide political information, which is broadly dened as information about the status and prospect of a proposed or potential government decision. Second, lobbyists provide what we call career-relevant information, which is information about the implications of a particular course of action for a government ofcials prospects of staying in ofce or advancing in a career. Finally, lobbyists provide policy-analytic information, which is information about the likely economic, social, or environmental consequences . . . of a particular course of action (Wright 1996, 88). In short, lobbying is largely about providing information. Although many people tend to think of lobbying as providing money, gifts, food, or booze, in most cases it is information that lobbyists provide to government ofcials when they lobby. Even when lobbyists lobby the public through indirect lobbying, they generally rely upon information.
interest group p ower in the states

Although the public and the press often hold a simplistic view of interest group powersuch as the richest groups are the most inuential or the good ol boys always winassessing actual interest group power is exceedingly difcult. It is difcult because many factors determine group power, and these factors change as political circumstances change. Three Perspectives on Group Power Group power can be viewed in various ways. One way is as the ability of a specic group to achieve its goals as that group and its leaders dene them, which we can term single group power. Group power can also be seen in terms of the most powerful groups in a society; this we can call overall interest power. These rst two perspectives are not the same. A group may be very successful in getting what it wants, but it may never be seen as particularly powerful in the political system overall. In contrast, a group may be viewed as very inuential in the society overall but may often lose political battles. A third way to view group power is group system powerthe overall inuence of interest groups relative to political parties and other political institutions and actors.
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Despite the difculties in denitively determining group power, research conducted in the American states is enlightening in explaining why some groups, interests, and group systems are more powerful than others. We will now say a few words about each type of interest group power. Single Group Power. Because single group power is the ability of a specic group or coalition to achieve its goals as it denes them, the only way to assess single group power is through an internal evaluation by the group itself. Unfortunately, this means that outside observers (political scientists, for example) can never really know how powerful any single interest group truly is. One thing we do know, however, is that many groups that consider themselves powerful and effective are not viewed as particularly powerful by the public ofcials (or the public) they lobby. There are several reasons why a group may be very successful in achieving its goals yet be viewed as relatively weak by public ofcials. First, a group may be only intermittently active and thus may simply not be on many public ofcials radar screens. This might be the case, for example, for an association of truck owners that works to defeat increased restrictions on truck weight limits on highways every time they are proposed by state ofcials. Second, a group may be an ad hoc coalition that comes together on one issue and then disbands when it achieves success. This might be the case, for example, for a coalition of churches and citizen groups that forms to defeat a same-sex marriage bill in the legislature. Third, a group may focus on an issue that is far from public view and of minor public concern. This may be the case, for example, for a professional association of beauticians that works with an executive agency to write regulations concerning the occupational licensing process. Rarely are beauticians seen as powerful interests in the states, but a professional association representing beauticians may be very successful in achieving its limited goals. Many groups involved in the regulatory process are very successful because they have captured their area of concern through dependence of bureaucrats on their expertise. The last thing most of these groups want is public attention and to be singled out as an effective group. Overall Interest Power. This is the aspect of interest group power that most fascinates the press and the public, both of which are less concerned about the minutiae of government than with high-prole issues and questions such as: Whos running the state? or Who has real political clout? Although the only important assessment of a single groups power is internal to the group, overall interest power can be assessed by informed observers. Researchers have used three methods, singly or in combination, to assess overall interest power: (1) asking public ofcials; (2) drawing on the expertise of political scientists; and (3) consulting academic and popular literature on the states. Our assessment draws upon the Hrebenar-Thomas fty-state study, which combined quantitative and qualitative techniques employing the rst two methods. The 2006 2007 assessment is found in Table 4-2, along with a comparison of rankings from the early 1980s. Our assessments enable us to examine trends in overall interest power over the past quarter century.
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Table 4-2 Ranking of the Forty Most Inuential Interests in the Fifty States in 20062007, Compared with Overall Ranking in the Early 1980sa
Number of states in 20062007 in which interest ranked among: Ranking of interest groups in 20062007 (rank in early 1980s in parentheses) 1 (2) 2 (1) 3 (6) 4 (4) 5 (17) 6 (13) 7 (11) 8 (22) 9 (9) 10 (8) 11 (14) 12 (10) 13 (3) 14 (19) 15 (5) 16 (15) 17 (36) 18 (7) 19 (29) 20 (23) 21 (16) 22 (18) 23 (37) 24 (21) 25 (12) General business organizations (state chambers of commerce, etc.) Schoolteachers organizations (NEA, AFT) Utility companies and associations (electric, gas, water, telephone, telecommunications) Manufacturers (companies and associations) Hospital and nursing homes associations Insurance: general and medical (companies and associations) Physicians, state medical associations Contractors, builders, developers General local government organizations (municipal leagues, county organizations, elected ofcials) Lawyers (predominantly trial lawyers, state bar associations) Realtors associations General farm organizations (state farm bureaus) Bankers associations Universities and colleges (institutions and employees) Traditional labor associations (predominantly the AFL-CIO) Individual labor unions (Teamsters, UAW) Gaming interests (race tracks, casinos, lotteries) Individual banks and nancial institutions State agencies Environmentalists K-12 education interests (other than teachers) Agricultural commodity organizations (stock growers, grain growers) Tourism, hospitality interests Retailers (companies and trade associations) State and local government employees (other than teachers) Most effectiveb 39 31 28 25 24 22 21 21 18 20 20 14 15 14 15 13 13 11 10 8 12 8 11 10 9 Second level of effectiveness 14 17 22 18 18 16 16 12 18 13 10 17 14 14 11 11 9 11 13 17 8 12 7 7 9 Less/not effective 5c 2d 9 14 10 14 14 27 15 18 20 19 21 23 24 26 28 28 30 25 31 30 33 33 32
(table continues on next page)
First, we must be clear on exactly what these assessments do and do not reveal. They do reveal the interests that are viewed by policymakers and political observers as the most effective in the states over the ve-year period prior to the 20062007 assessment. For this reason the interests listed tend to be the most active groups or those with a high prole. The assessments do not indicate that the interests near the top of the list always win or even win most of the time. In fact, the top interests may win less often than some low-prole interests and groups not listed. The place of an individual interest in the ranking indicates simply its level of importance as a player in state politics over the period assessed and the extent of its ability to bring political clout to bear on the issues that affect it.
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Continued
Number of states in 20062007 in which interest ranked among:
Table 4-2
Ranking of interest groups in 20062007 (rank in early 1980s in parentheses) 26 (35) 27 (34) 28 (25) 29 (24) 30 (37) 31 (26) 32 (20) 33 (38) 34 (NR) 35 (30) 36 (28) 37 (27) 38 (40) Sporting issues, hunting and shing (includes anti-gun-control groups) Religious interests (churches and religious right) Liquor, wine, and beer interests Individual cities and towns Pro-life groups Mining companies and associations Oil and gas (companies and associations) Taxpayers interest groups Pharmaceutical interests (manufacturers and distributors) Forest products companies, associations Liberal causes, public interest, good government groups (Common Cause, League of Women Voters, ACLU, PIRGs) Truckers and private transport interests (excluding railroads) Miscellaneous social issue groups (antidrunk driving, anti-smoking, anti-poverty groups, child welfare) Senior citizens/AARP Pro-tobacco interests
Most effective b 8 7 6 9 7 8 7 6 7 5 2 4 1
Second level of effectiveness 10 12 11 4 7 1 3 5 2 6 12 7 11
Less/not effective 32 31 33 37 36 41 40 40 41 39 36 39 38
39 (31) 40 (39)
0 2
12 4
38 44
S O U R C E S : Authors analysis; compiled by the authors from the 20062007 fty-state update of the Hrebenar-Thomas study; and Clive S. Thomas and Ronald J. Hrebenar, Interest Groups in the States, in Politics in the American States: A Comparative Analysis, 5th ed., ed. Virginia Gray, Herbert Jacob, and Robert B. Albritton, 123158 (Glenview, Ill: Scott, Foresman, 1990). See note 1 in this chapter for a list of the researchers who gathered the data on which this table is based.
a. This table is based on a ranking of individual interests in the fty states conducted by political scientists during fall and winter of 20062007. We asked each researcher to put interests into two categories: (1) most effective and (2) second level of effectiveness. We nalized rankings by allocating 2 points for each most effective ranking an interest received, and 1 point for each second level ranking an interest received, and we then added the totals. Where a tie in total points occurred, we ranked interests according to the number of most effective placements or the overall number of states in which they are effective. b. In some cases the totals for an interest add up to more than fty. This is because groups within an interest category sometimes appear within both the most effective and the second level category in a state. For example, utilities are ranked in both categories in Arkansas and in several other states. Therefore, they are counted once for each category. c. These ve states are Georgia, Hawaii, Maryland, Rhode Island, and Virginia. d. These two states are Georgia and Hawaii.
In a comparison of the listings over the years, what stands out is the relative stability of both the types of interests that make the list and the rankings. When changes in ranking occur or new groups or interests appear on the list, the changes appear to be inuenced by the prominence of issues at the time and by partisan control and the ideological persuasion of state government. Gaming, health, and insurance interests, for example, have steadily increased in perceived inuence as lotteries and casinos (including Indian gaming), health care, and tort reform, respectively, have become more important issues in state politics. Environmental and other liberal groups wax and wane in strength according to who is in power in state government (that is, these groups rise in power when Democrats are in charge). Business and development interests have seen a boost in their rankings since GOP successes in state elections in 1994.
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Until the early 2000s, two interests outstripped all others in their perceived inuence and vied for the top ranking. These were general business organizations (mainly state chambers of commerce), and schoolteachers (mainly state afliates of the National Education Association [NEA]). These are still ranked one and two in the 20062007 survey; but general business organizations are now clearly the number one interest even though schoolteachers are listed among the most powerful groups in more states (mentioned in 48 states compared with 45 states for businesssee listing in Table 4-2). Utility interests have been consistently in third place and in 20062007 came very close to the NEA in inuence. In short, these three interests now clearly surpass all others. Other than hospitals, contractors, and universities, the top fteen interests as listed in 20062007 are those that were listed as most effective in the early 1980s. These top fteen interests are the only ones mentioned as effective (both in the rst and second rank) in more than half the states. This means that the so-called advocacy explosion (that is, the large increase in the number of interest groups active in the states) of the past thirty years has not been paralleled by a broad range of groups being viewed as effective in most states. It is also worth noting that despite the advocacy explosion, there is only one public or citizen interest ranked in the top twenty. This is the environmental lobby, which reached the top twenty for the rst time in the 20062007 survey. The top twenty listing (and, indeed, the entire listing) is and has always been dominated by economic interests, especially business, professional, and labor interests, with governments, universities, and school boards the only interests in any way representing what might be considered the broad public interest. The rankings of groups from fteen to forty have also remained fairly stable over the years. In all, the six surveys conrm what we have known since the rst study of the power of state interest groups conducted by Zeller (1954) more than fty years ago: Business and the professions are the most effective interests in the states. Which interests have made the most gains and losses during the past twenty-ve years and six surveys? The major gains have been made by gaming interests, which moved from 36 to 17. Contractors and developers and the tourism and hospitality industry each gained fourteen places (22 to 8, and 37 to 23, respectively). Hospitals moved up twelve spots (17 to 5), and state agencies moved up ten (29 to 19). The three biggest losers have been state employees (dropping thirteen places, 12 to 25), oil and gas interests (dropping twelve, 20 to 32), and individual banks and nancial institutions (dropping eleven, 7 to 18). Banking associations, the AFL-CIO, and private transport interests each dropped ten places. Only one interest on the current listpharmaceuticalswas not on the list in 1985. Railroads, newspapers and the media, and women and minorities have dropped from the rankings entirely since the early 1980s. These minor changes attest to the stability of the rankings over the years. Group System Power. Although the power of single groups and the overall impact of particular interests is observed in their political mobilization and their ability to achieve their goals, group system power is much more abstract. The method most
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frequently used to determine group system power has been to garner the observations of political practitioners and political scientists regarding the importance of the players involved in the policymaking process in each of the fty states (see, for example, Morehouse [1981] and Zeller [1954]). This was the method used during the past twenty-ve years by the Hrebenar-Thomas study. Early assessments of group system power used only three categories: strong, moderate, and weak (Morehouse 1981; Zeller 1954). The ve categories developed by the Hrebenar-Thomas study improve on this categorization. Table 4-3 presents these ve categories and lists each of the fty states according to the strength of its interest group system in 20062007, with an indication of changes since the 1985 survey. States listed as dominant are those in which groups as a whole have an overwhelming and consistent inuence on policymaking. Groups in states listed as complementary tend to work in conjunction with, or are constrained by, other aspects of the political system. Most often interest groups are constrained by the party system; but they also may be constrained by a strong executive branch, competition between groups, political culture, or a combination of these factors. Montana, for example, which for many years was a state with very strong, even dominant, interest groups, has over the past few years seen the power of its group system diluted by a strong governor (Democrat Brian Schweitzer, who took ofce in 2004). A subordinate group system is one in which interest groups are consistently subordinated to other aspects of the policymaking process. Currently, the group system is not subordinate in any state. There has, in fact, never been a state that we categorized as having a subordinate interest group system. The dominant/complementary and the complementary/subordinate columns contain those states whose group systems combine elements of the two categories or are in the process of moving from one of these categories to the other. Comparisons between the rst survey in the early 1980s and the latest one in 20062007 reveal three major things about group system power in the states over the past quarter century. First, changes in group system power are gradual (if they occur at all). Fifty-six percent of states (28) have remained in the same category. Moreover, of the twenty-two states that have moved categories, twenty have moved only one category from the rst survey, of which seventeen moved only once. Only ve states (10 percent) have moved three times during the past twenty-ve years. And only Kentucky and Delaware are two categories removed in 20062007 from where they were in the early 1980s. Second, most movement between categories occurred around the dominant/complementary category, which showed the only increase in the number of states during the period under study (from eighteen in 1985 to twenty-six in 2002 and 20062007). Overall, the general movement has been toward stronger but not dominant interest group systems. Third, in all six surveys, the South is the region with the most powerful interest group systems, although the gap between the South and the other regions has narrowed considerably since the mid-1980s. The Northeast remains the region with the least powerful interest group systems.

Table 4-3 Classication of the Fifty States According to the Overall Impact of Interest Groups in 20062007, Compared with Classications in 1985
States where the overall impact of interest groups is: Dominant/ complementary (26) Alaska Arizona Arkansas California ++ Delaware Georgia Idaho + Illinois + Iowa + Kansas Louisiana + Maryland Mississippi + Missouri Nebraska New Mexico Ohio Oklahoma Oregon South Carolina Tennessee Texas Utaha Virginia West Virginia Wyoming Complementary/ subordinate (5) Kentucky Michigan Minnesota South Dakota Vermont a
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Dominant (4) Alabama Florida +/ Hawaii + Nevada
Complementary (15 ) Colorado +/ Connecticut Indiana Maine Massachusetts +/ Montana New Hampshire New Jersey New York North Carolina North Dakota Pennsylvania + Rhode Island Washington Wisconsin
Subordinate (0)
S O U R C E S : Authors analysis; compiled by the authors from the 20062007 fty-state update of the Hrebenar-Thomas study; and Clive S. Thomas and Ronald J. Hrebenar, Interest Groups in the States, in Politics in the American States: A Comparative Analysis, 5th ed., ed. Virginia Gray, Herbert Jacob, and Robert B. Albritton, 123158 (Glenview, Ill: Scott, Foresman, 1990). See note 1 in this chapter for a list of the researchers who gathered the data on which this table is based. N O T E S : The symbols +/, ++, and indicate that a state has moved across three adjacent categories since the rst survey in 1985. If a state has moved up and down, it is designated with +/; if it has moved up only, it is designated with ++; and if it has moved down only, it is marked by . The symbols + and indicate movement of one category only, up or down, since the 1985 survey.
a. Utah and Vermont are in the same categories they occupied in 1985, but both states have moved twice since 1985into the complementary category and then back to their original categories.
A Concluding Word on Group Power in the States One nal point needs to be made about interest group power in the states: Although there are some common inuences across the states, the impact of groups in a particular state is a product of the unique ways in which these inuences interact and change (the case of Montanas strong governor is one example). In some states the power of certain single groups and the perception of the power of individual interests may hold rm or even increase at a time when the same groups and interests are declining in other states. The number of states that have seen increases in group system power in the past twenty-ve years is close to the number in which group
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power has declined. Thus, although some common denominators do exist across the states, changes in single group power, overall interest power, and group system power often depend on the individual circumstances in a state.
concerns and problems: regul ation of interest groups in the states

In 2005 lobbying on the state level became a billion-dollar business for the rst time. Over 40,000 registered lobbyists representing 50,000 organizations sought to inuence the 40,000 laws and $1.4 trillion in appropriations made by the various state legislatures in 2005 (Laskow 2006). While interest groups and lobbyists are indispensable to vibrant liberal democracies including those in the American states, they can and often do have negative effects on a political system (Thomas 2004b). There are four specic concerns about interest groups in the American states. First, as vehicles of representation, interest groups are far from ideal in that they do not represent all segments of society equally. Their bias is toward the bettereducated, higher-income, majority culture (whites in most states), and toward the males of the population. Minorities, women, and individuals with lower socioeconomic status are underrepresented by interest groups. Second, resources mainly moneydo matter, and those groups that have the most resources, particularly business rms, trade associations, and professional associations, tend to be the most successful in gaining access to state government ofcials. Third, extensive resourcesincluding money, good lobbyists, and favored status with government ofcialsmean that some groups exert power out of all proportion to their numbers of members. In some instances, a powerful interest can even thwart the will of a much larger number of people. Finally, because the stakes are so high, some interest groups and lobbyists resort to illegal means to achieve their policy goals. Over the years, concerns about undue inuence and corruption, as well as a desire to reach an improved state of democracy, have led to increased regulation of interest groups (Thomas 2004c). Today four main types of legal provisions provide for the regulation of lobbying activity in the states. Lobby lawswhich require lobbyists to register with state government and also dictate what lobbyists are and are not allowed to doare the most important, but they are supplemented primarily by three other types of provisions. First, conict-of-interest and personal nancial disclosure provisions (the provisions vary somewhat across states) require public ofcials to disclose their nancial connections to outside individuals and organizations (including interest groups). Second, campaign nance regulations provide for public disclosure, to a varying extent, of campaign contributions from interest groups and individuals to candidates for public ofce. Third, campaign nance regulations limit how much individuals, interest groups (for example, political action committees [PACs]), and political parties can contribute to candidates for state ofce. State lobby laws vary considerably in their inclusiveness, their reporting requirements, and the stringency with which they are enforced. For example, although all fty states require lobbyists to register, different states dene lobbyist differently. While all fty states dene a lobbyist as someone who has contact with the legislature,
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less than one-third consider someone who has contact with administrative ofcials a lobbyist. Similarly, some states require public ofcials (for example, state agency personnel) to register when they lobby, but most do not. States also vary in their reporting requirements and in the stringency with which they enforce lobby laws. Because of the variations in state lobby laws, it is difcult to reach any denitive conclusions about their nature or their effects. However, it is possible to determine where states rank in the degree to which they regulate lobbying activity. Recently, a nonpartisan think tank, the Center for Public Integrity (CPI), assessed the lobby laws of all fty states and the federal government. Specically, CPI evaluated lobbying reporting and disclosure rules (rules that dictate which activities lobbyists must disclose publicly) and lobbying restrictions (restrictions that dictate what lobbyists can and cannot do). The CPI determined that the states with the least stringent laws are Pennsylvania, Wyoming, New Hampshire, South Dakota, and Illinois. The states with the most stringent lobby laws are Washington, Kentucky, South Carolina, Connecticut, and New York. To illustrate how wide the variation is between states, we can compare two western statesWyoming and California. Wyoming has some of the most lax lobby laws in the country. The state earned only thirty-four out of a possible hundred points from the CPI, primarily because it has no revolving-door prohibition on governmental ofcials becoming lobbyists shortly after they leave ofce, and it lacks facilities for electronic ling and disclosure of interest group spending. In contrast, California scored seventy-one points, largely on the basis of the ease with which the public can access information about lobbyist activity and the vigor with which the state enforces its lobby laws. Utah is another state with very lax lobby laws. The state requires little detailed reporting of lobbying activity and allows gifts worth less than $50 from lobbyists to legislators. The CPIs 2007 report indicated that state-level reforms had outpaced reforms at the federal level during the 20032007 period. Twenty-four states had accomplished disclosure enhancements (that is, forced lobbyists to disclose more of their activities) during this period, and the quality of states lobbying laws is such that the laws in forty-seven states are now stricter than the lobby laws in effect at the federal level. In terms of the enforcement of lobby laws, twenty-seven states now have independent enforcement agencies. There is no independent enforcement agency at the federal level. How do we explain differences across the states in lobby laws? Morehouse (1981, 130131) and Morehouse and Jewell (2003, 8789) have argued that states with the most stringent lobby laws tend to be those with weaker interest group systems. This is more or less conrmed by the Hrebenar-Thomas study. Given variations among the states in the extent and the stringency of enforcement of lobby laws, the question arises: do these laws and regulations make a difference? We believe that the answer is yes. First, lobby laws and other lobby regulations unquestionably have made it easier for people to nd out who is lobbying whom and for what. Disclosure increases the potential for public and press scrutiny of lobbying. Increased public information has probably been the element of lobby regulation that has had the most signicant effect on state politics and government.
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According to regulatory ofcials, it is not the general public but rather the press, candidates seeking election, and interest group personnel and lobbyists who make the most use of lobby registration and disclosure information. The bulk of the information about lobbyists expenditures and activities is disseminated by the press. Thus, although the public has beneted from lobbying disclosure provisions, the extent of these benets is largely determined by the press. So-called outsider interests may also have beneted from lobby regulations because public information has made the activities of their entrenched opponents more visible and as a result more restrained in some instances. Second, lobby laws and regulations have apparently affected the behavior of entrenched interest groups and their lobbyists in the states. Restraint in dealings with public ofcials, greater concern for their groups public image, and increased professionalism of lobbyists appear to be the three major effects. Lobbyists, especially those representing powerful interests, are today much less likely to use blatant strong-arm tactics than they were in the past because their activities are now closely scrutinized. This is, in part, the reason for the apparent disappearance of the old wheeler-dealer lobbyist from state politics and the increased professionalism of lobbyists in general. Even dominant interests, such as Microsoft in Washington, prefer to use low-key approaches buttressed by public relations campaigns.
conclusion
Politics in the states change quickly. But there is one constant: interest groups. Interest groups are and always have been crucially important actors in all fty states. In this chapter we have attempted to give you a broad overview of interest group politics in the states. In closing, we wish to make a few observations. First, although interest groups have always been active in the states, it appears that there are now more groups in more states than ever before. Second, interest group communities in the states are more diverse than ever before. Today, in all fty states (to different extents, of course), citizen groups, charities, think tanks, governmental entities, and other types of interest groups lobby alongside the traditional business and professional association powerhouses. Finally, lobbying in the states is more professional than ever before. State lobbyists are no longer good ol boys or sleazy glad-handers (if they ever were). State lobbyists today are sophisticated professionals who rely on often sophisticated information and techniques to try to get their way.
ke y terms
communications theory of lobbying, 113 direct techniques, 106 group system power, 115 indirect techniques, 106 institutional interests, 99 interest group, 99 lobbying, 100 lobbyist, 100 state interest group system, 100 traditional membership groups, 99
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references
Blair, Diane D., and Jay Barth. 2005. Arkansas Politics and Government. 2d ed. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. Center for Public Integrity. 2006. Hired Guns: State Lobby Totals (2004, 2005). Washington, D.C.: Center for Public Integrity. www.publicintegrity.org/hiredguns/chart.aspx?act=lobby spending&sort=4. Dondero, Russ, and William Lunch. 2005. Interest Groups. In Oregon Politics and Government: Progressives Versus Conservative Populists, ed. Richard A. Clucas, Mark Henkels, and Brent S. Steel, 8298. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. Elazar, Daniel J. 1984. American Federalism: A View from the States. 3d ed. New York: Harper and Row. Esterling, Kevin M. 2004. The Political Economy of Expertise: Information and Efciency in American National Politics. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Gray, Virginia, and David Lowery. 1996. The Population Ecology of Interest Representation: Lobbying Communities in the American States. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. . 2001. The Institutionalization of State Communities of Organized Interests. Political Research Quarterly 54: 265284. Hrebenar, Ronald J., and Clive S. Thomas, eds. 1987. Interest Group Politics in the American West. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press. . 1992. Interest Group Politics in the Southern States. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press. . 1993a. Interest Group Politics in the Midwestern States. Ames: Iowa State University Press. . 1993b. Interest Group Politics in the Northeastern States. University Park, Pa.: Pennsylvania State University Press. Kersh, Rogan T. 2006. Interest-Group Lobbying in New York State. In Governing New York State, 5th ed., ed. Robert F. Pecorella and Jeffrey M. Stonecash, 93109. Albany: State University of New York Press. Laskow, Sarah. 2006. State Lobbying Becomes Billion-Dollar Business. Washington, D.C.: Center for Public Integrity. www.publicintegrity.org/hiredguns/report.aspx?aid=835. Loomis, Burdett A., and Allan J. Cigler. 2007. Introduction: The Changing Nature of Interest Group Politics. In Interest Group Politics, 7th ed., ed. Allan J. Cigler and Burdett A. Loomis, 133. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press. Lowery, David, and Holly Brasher. 2004. Organized Interests and American Government. Boston: McGraw-Hill. Lowery, David, and Virginia Gray. 1993. The Density of State Interest Group Systems. Journal of Politics 55: 191206. . 1994. The Nationalization of State Interest Group System Density and Diversity. Social Science Quarterly 75: 368381. Morehouse, Sarah McCally. 1981. State Politics, Parties, and Policy. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Morehouse, Sarah McCally, and Malcolm E. Jewell. 2003. State Politics, Parties, and Policy, 2d ed. Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littleeld. New York Temporary State Commission on Lobbying. 2007. 2006 Annual Report. Albany: State of New York. www.nylobby.state.ny.us/ann_rept06/annrept.html. Nownes, Anthony J. 2006. Total Lobbying: What Lobbyists Want (and How They Try to Get It). New York: Cambridge University Press. . 1998a. Female Lobbyists: Women in the World of Good Ol Boys. Journal of Politics 60: 11811201. Nownes, Anthony J., and Patricia Freeman. 1998b. Interest Group Activity in the States. Journal of Politics 60: 86112. Oregon Government Standards and Practices Commission. 2007. Lobbying Entity Expenditures, 2006. Salem, Ore.: State of Oregon. www.oregon.gov/GSPC/public_records.shtml. Public Policy Institute of New York State, Inc. 2006. State and Local Spending Per Capita, 2004. Albany: Public Policy Institute of New York State, Inc. www.ppinys.org/reports/jtf/spending .htm. Rosenthal, Alan. 2001. The Third House: Lobbyists and Lobbying in the States, 2d ed. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press. Salisbury, Robert H. 1984. Interest Representation: The Dominance of Institutions. American Political Science Review 78: 6476.
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Thomas, Clive S. 2004a. Introduction: The Study of Interest Groups. In Research Guide to U.S. and International Interest Groups, ed. Clive S. Thomas, 123. Westport, Conn.: Praeger. . 2004b. The Concerns and the Major Approach for Addressing Them: An Overview. In Research Guide to U.S. and International Interest Groups, ed. Thomas, 357359. Thomas, Clive S., and Ronald J. Hrebenar. 1990. Interest Groups in the States. In Politics in the American States: A Comparative Analysis, 5th ed., ed. Virginia Gray, Herbert Jacob, and Robert B. Albritton, 123158. Glenview, Ill: Scott, Foresman. . 1991. Nationalization of Interest Groups and Lobbying in the States. In Interest Group Politics, 3d ed., ed. Allan J. Cigler and Burdett A. Loomis, 6380. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press. . 1992. Changing Patterns of Interest Group Activity: A Regional Perspective. In The Politics of Interests: Interest Groups Transformed, ed. Mark. P. Petracca, 150174. Boulder, Colo: Westview Press. . 1996. Interest Groups in the States. In Politics in the American States: A Comparative Analysis, 6th ed., ed. Virginia Gray and Herbert Jacob, 122158. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press. . 1999. Interest Groups in the States. In Politics in the American States: A Comparative Analysis, 7th ed., ed. Virginia Gray, Russell L. Hanson and Herbert Jacob, 113143. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press. . 2004. Interest Groups in the States. In Politics in the American States: A Comparative Analysis, 8th ed., ed. Virginia Gray and Russell L. Hanson, 100128. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press. Wright, John R. 1996. Interest Groups and Congress: Lobbying, Contributions, and Inuence. Needham Heights, Mass.: Allyn and Bacon. Zeller, Belle. 1954. American State Legislatures, 2d ed. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell.
suggested readings
Print
Gray, Virginia, and David Lowery. The Population Ecology of Interest Representation: Lobbying Communities in the American States. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1996. Examines the demography of interest groups in the fty states. Offers and tests a theoretical model that accounts for differences in interest group density and diversity across states. Morehouse, Sarah McCally, and Malcolm E. Jewell. State Politics, Parties, and Policy, 2d ed. Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littleeld, 2003. A classic text that examines politics and policymaking in the fty states. Emphasizes the enduring importance of state political parties in determining policy outcomes. Rosenthal, Alan. The Third House: Lobbyists and Lobbying in the States, 2d ed. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 2001. Examines the roles, activities, and inuence of state lobbyists; draws on extensive eld work and interviews. Thomas, Clive S., ed. Research Guide to U.S. and International Interest Groups. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2004. An encyclopedic resource containing more than two hundred entries on assorted topics related to interest groups; provides a strong foundation for the interest group researcher.
Internet
Center for Public Integrity. www.publicintegrity.org/. CPI is a nonpartisan, nonprot organization that specializes in investigative journalism pertaining to governmental ethics, lobbying, and public policy. Council on Governmental Ethics Laws. www.cogel.org/. COGEL is a professional organization for government agencies, organizations, and individuals with responsibilities or interests in governmental ethics, elections, campaign nance, lobby laws and freedom of information. Its Web site contains a plethora of information on governmental ethics and lobbying laws. American League of Lobbyists. www.alldc.org/. The ALL is a professional association of lobbyists. Its Web site contains a great deal of information on the lobbying profession. Political Reform Division (California Secretary of State). www.sos.ca.gov/prd/prd.htm. The Political Reform Division administers Californias Political Reform Act, which regulates elections and lobbying. The Web sites provides access to lists of registered lobbyists and interest groups in the state of California. It also provides access to lobbying disclosure statements. Most states have sites similar to this one, and this site will give an idea of what information concerning state lobbyists and interest groups is available to the public.
CHAPTER
THE INITIATIVE PROCESS

BY SHAUN BOWLER AND TODD DONOVAN
Excerpted from Virginia Gray, Russell L. Hanson, POLITICS IN THE AMERICAN STATES: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS, 9TH EDITION (Washington: DC, CQ Press, 2008), pp. 127-153.
chapter 5
The Initiative Process
s h au n b o w l e r a n d t o d d d o n o va n
About half the states, most of them in the West, have some type of direct democracy process that allows voters a direct say in shaping public policy. These states allow people to use the initiative process to draft laws and, if a sufcient number of signatures are collected from registered voters, place them on the states ballot. Depending on the state, elected representatives may have little inuence over the substance of what voters might decide on and have limited ability to amend the measure if voters approve it. As we shall see, each state using initiatives has a unique set of rules regulating the process. In states where restrictions are minimal, politics and policies at some levels can be fundamentally different than in non-initiative states. In recent decades, voters in states that use the initiative process have decided on many critical matters of policywith battles over several of these setting the stage for major policy debates at the national level. Anti-tax initiatives from the late 1970s, for example, foreshadowed the Reagan-era federal tax cuts of the early 1980s. More recently, initiatives in California, Florida, and Washington targeting afrmative action set the tone for national debate on the policy in the late 1990s. In 2004 and 2006, voters in several states considered the fate of ballot measures that would ban same sex marriage. Indeed, initiative efforts in the states sometimes are part of larger campaigns designed to shape the national agenda as much as set policy in a particular state. Initiative activists with an eye to the national stage seek to place their proposals on the ballot in multiple states to promote their causes. As a result, measures backed by national groups advocating such things as a nuclear freeze, school choice, term limits, and the repeal of afrmative action can be found on the ballot in several different states.
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Still, most of the proposals that reach a states ballot are likely to be homegrown. This does not mean that all or even most initiatives are the product of the average citizen who rallies at the grassroots to challenge an established order. The initiative process is also used by political parties, incumbent politicians, candidates for ofce, wealthy individuals, and powerful interest groups (Smith and Tolbert 2001; Ellis 2002). In addition, several initiative states have spawned individual policy entrepreneurs who, while never holding ofce, use multiple initiatives to reshape their states policy agendas (Donovan, Bowler, and McCuan 2001). In this context, voters in initiative states have made decisions in the past decade on issues such as gun control, access to abortion, gay rights, services for immigrants, bilingual education, criminal sentencing, taxation, gambling, insurance reform, environmental protection, campaign nance reform, and term limits.
origins of initiatives in the united states

The initiative process was rst introduced in South Dakota in 1898 and rst used in Oregon in 1904.1 A series of other states followed South Dakota and adopted the initiativeeighteen between 1898 and 1914as disaffected social movements such as labor groups, farmers (the Grange movement, the Farmers Alliance), singletaxers, Prohibitionists, evangelists, and good government goo goos pressed for more direct say in their government. State governments that often seemed to these Populists and Progressives as too corrupt and too beholden to special interests were targeted for reform with the initiative and referendum devices. These directdemocracy tools were part of a larger set of reforms, including direct election of U.S. senators, direct primary elections, and restrictions on political parties that were designed to weaken the control that powerful economic actors had over government. It is important to put these reforms in context. At the turn of the twentieth century campaign contributions were unregulated, and bribery and graft were not uncommon in state legislatures (Schuman 1994; Sutro 1994). Powerful business interests were able to nance a political party or a coalition of legislators in exchange for favorable treatment. As one observer noted in the 1880s, the Oregon legislature consisted of brieess lawyers, farmless farmers, business failures, bar-room loafers, Fourth-of-July orators [and] political thugs (in Schuman 1994, 949). To Populist and Progressive reformers of that era, legislators could not be trusted to serve the public interest (Sutro 1994). Cain and Miller (2001) distinguish between the Progressive and Populist roots of the initiative process, both in terms of the different social bases of these movements and in terms of what each wanted from reforms. The Populists maintained that common people are trustworthy and competent but that elected legislators were neither (Cain and Miller 2001, 35). The explicit intent of the Populists was to take power away from incumbent politicians, vested interests, and party machines and give it to voters. Progressives, on the other hand, were more sympathetic to the leg1. Nebraska had allowed the use of the initiative in cities the year before, in 1897.
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islative process but wanted to liberate representative government from [the] corrupt forces so that it might become an effective instrument for social reform (Cain and Miller 2001, 36). As one scholar (Johnson 1944) put it, for legislatures intent on blocking popular policies, the initiative was the spur in the ank, and for legislatures attempting to pass unpopular policies, it was the bit in the teeth.
a wide variet y of initiative systems

Each of the twenty-four states that currently allow initiatives has its own unique version of the process. Most western states that adopted the initiative early now allow citizens to draft constitutional initiatives as well as statutory initiatives.2 Many of these states also require relatively few signatures to qualify measures. After 1914 the window of opportunity for the spread of wide-open direct democracy in the United States closed substantially. Alaska included the initiative in its constitution when it was admitted to the Union (1959), but only Wyoming (1968), Illinois (1970), Florida (1970), and Mississippi (1992) have adopted it since. Being removed from the immediate context of the Populist zeal for direct democracy, each of these late-adopting states has a breed of initiative that is much more restrained than what is found in California, Oregon, and much of the rest of the American West. Late-adopting states tend to have less extensive provisions for the use of initiatives. Three late-adopting states allow constitutional initiatives only, with severe restrictions on their subject matter or restrictive provisions for qualication (Florida, Illinois, and Mississippi). As such, initiatives are rarely used in these statesonly four had appeared in Illinois by 2007, just seven in Wyoming, and only two in Mississippi (National Conference of State Legislatures 2005). Florida voters passed a 2006 amendment requiring a 60 percent supermajority to approve future initiatives, a rule that may further increase the difculty of passing initiative amendments there. Although the public remains quite supportive of the initiative process in most states where it is used, state legislators are less enthusiastic (Bowler et al. 2001). There is evidence that public opinion in Californiaa high-initiative-use stateis becoming tolerant of reform proposals that might moderate initiative use (Baldassare and Dyck 2006). Recent proposals for expanding initiative use to additional states (such as New Jersey, see Holman 2002) have failed to advance. Many of the early-adopting, Populist-inspired states have relatively liberal rules on qualication combined with provisions for constitutional and statutory initiatives. More than three hundred initiatives have appeared on California ballots since the state adopted direct democracy, with even more appearing in Oregon. The ve states with the most frequent use of initiative historically (in order, Oregon, California,
2. Statutory initiatives change the law, not the constitution, while constitutional initiatives change the constitution. Amendments to state constitutions are typically much harder to accomplish than statutory changes. One reason is that initiatives that seek to amend constitutions have higher qualication requirements.
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Colorado, North Dakota, Arizona) have averaged more than three initiatives per election since the Progressive era (Tolbert, Lowenstein, and Donovan 1998). This average understates how often the initiative has been used recently, however. There has been a steady increase in the number of ballot measures that have qualied across all states since the 1960s. After a decline in the 1940s and 1950s, use of initiatives reached a new peak in the 1990s, when there were nearly four hundred initiatives on state ballotsfar more than any other decade (Ellis 2002). In the past two decades, Washington and Nevada replaced North Dakota among the top initiative use states. While most initiatives fail (Magleby 1994), they can nevertheless have a powerful effect on the design of state political institutions and on the political agenda.
initiatives as a form of direct demo cracy

Although we refer to the initiative process throughout this chapter, we should note that there are several distinct types of direct democracy that have been adopted in the United States. Although frequently lumped together, it is important to note the differences among them. The four main types of direct citizen voting on policy questions are direct initiative, indirect initiative, popular referendum, and legislative referendum. Under the legislative referendum, citizens vote on statutes or constitutional amendments, or both, that have previously been enacted by the state legislature or proposed by the legislature. Use of legislative referendums is quite widespread, with nearly every advanced democratic nation other than the United States (Butler and Ranney 1994) and nearly every American state having some provisions for themparticularly for state constitutional matters. Initiatives and popular referendums are another matter, and may be thought of as forms of direct democracy because control over whether a public vote is held rests outside of the legislature. With popular referendums (also known as the popular veto), if enough voter signatures are collected, a bill previously approved by the legislature is put before voters for a binding yes-or-no vote. With the exceptions of Florida and Mississippi, every state that adopted initiatives adopted popular referendums at the same time (Magleby 1984). With direct initiatives, it is the initiatives proponents, rather than the legislature, who write the legislation that the public will vote on: qualied measures simply go straight to the ballot in the next election. A few states use indirect initiatives, which allow the state legislature to adopt a proposal once it qualies but also gives it the option of coming up with an alternative measure to place on the ballot alongside the original initiative. Most states with initiatives have direct initiatives only; however, a few (Maine, Massachusetts, Wyoming) have indirect initiatives only. Five othersMichigan, Nevada, Ohio, Utah, Washingtonhave both. The distinction between direct and indirect initiatives is not always precise. Depending on the state, the indirect initiative question may go on the ballot if the legislature rejects it, submits a different proposal, or takes no action. Alaskas and Wyomings initiative processes are usually considered indirect. However, instead of requiring that an initiative be submitted to the legislature for action, they require only that
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an initiative not be placed on the ballot until after a legislative session has convened and adjourned.
initiatives and agenda set ting

For our purposes we will treat direct and indirect initiatives as one category in which citizens or groups outside the legislature initiate policy proposals. We focus on the initiatives rather than popular referendums because they have the greatest policy impact and generate the most heated discussions among observers of state politics. Under the initiative process, citizens, interest groups, and others who are outside of the government decide whether to place a question on the ballot, when to ask it, and what the details of the law will be. The initiative grants the power to make policy directly to the citizens and is a direct expression of both majority rule and popular sovereignty in a way quite distinct from a purely representative form of government.
subject mat ter

What, then, can voters decide upon in initiative states? Most states follow legislative practice in limiting the proposal to a single subject. Some states add restrictions.3 Oklahoma, for example, has restrictions on how often a proposal can be made, while Mississippi imposes a string of restrictions on the kinds of policy areas that may be proposed; but in general most anything can be raised via the initiative.4 Although some states may review the proposal prior to circulating petitions to check for proper form, very few states allow amendment or revision of propositions without the proponents consent. Of the twenty-four states that use the initiative process, only six have much of a pre-election review at all, and four more (Colorado, Idaho, Montana, and Washington) have a largely advisory process. In terms of other forms of legal review only, Floridas court has been known to regularly nullify initiatives on single-subject grounds, declaring that single-subject rules should be applied more rigorously to initiatives than legislative bills (Lowenstein 1995, 282). Since 2000, however, state courts in California, Colorado, Nevada, and Oregon have become more rigid in the application of their states single-subject rule. At times, this has meant that a single initiative must be split into several questions that are put before voters (Ellis 2002, 144146). In sum, there are few limits on the kinds of issues that reach the ballotfrom taxation through issues such as the death penalty, regulation of euthanasia, abortion, drug use, rights for gays and lesbians, and prohibitions on the hunting of specic animals (for example, wolves and mountain lions). A wide assortment of animal welfare measures have appeared on ballots recently, including a California measure banning the consumption of horsemeat, an Oklahoma initiative banning cockghting, and a constitutional initiative in Florida to protect pregnant pigs (all three of these were approved). Other issues reaching the ballot clearly are designed
3. For a list of restrictions, see National Conference of State Legislatures (2006). 4. A few states prohibit measures dealing with the judiciary, bills of rights, or tax questions.
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to limit what legislators can do: issues such as term limits, spending limits, and campaign nance reforms. Many of these are such polarizing matters that incumbent legislators may not wish to have oor votes on them, while others are often matters that many self-interested incumbents might resist. Throughout the twentieth century a surprising degree of stability existed in the subject matter on which voters were asked to decide (Magleby 1994; see also Tolbert, Grummel, and Smith 2001). The most common types of initiatives since 1980 have been governmental reform measures such as term limits and campaign nance regulation (23 percent) and taxation questions (22 percent). Social and moral issues (17 percent) and environmental measures (11 percent) are the next most common types of questions (Tolbert, Grummel, and Smith 2001; Magleby 1994). Apart from an upsurge in the proportion of measures dealing with the environment and a slight decline in the proportion dealing with governmental reform, the general subject matter on ballots at the end of the 1990s was relatively similar to that appearing in the early decades of the twentieth century.
get ting on the ballot

The initiatives actual impact on state politics may depend on how easy it is to use, as well as on the nature of interest group demands in a state. There is considerable variation in how easy it is for citizens to use the process across the twenty-four states that have some version of direct democracy. Independent of this, there is also considerable variation in the level of demand for initiatives in each state. Putting to one side for a moment the state-specic details of qualication procedures, there are four basic steps in the initiative process that most states share:5 1. A proposal is drafted by proponents. 2. The proposal is forwarded to a state ofce for review (usually for form, not legal content). An ofcial title and summary of the measure are issued (a few states allow proponents to write the title). 3. Proponents circulate petitions that include the title, a summary, and text of the law for registered voters to sign. 4. A state ofce veries that the correct number of signatures has been gathered. If so, the proposal goes to the ballot. Although these steps may sound relatively straightforward in principle, their actual practice can raise some quite difcult issues. Take, for example, the rst two steps: the drafting and ling of a proposal. It is important to underscore that, at least in certain states, anyone with a few spare dollars can submit a proposal on just about any topicin the state of Washington anyone with just $5.00 and a bee in the bonnet can start the initiative ball rolling. Far more proposals are thus submitted for title and summary than ever qualify for the
5. For a more detailed discussion of Californias initiative process, see Initiatives, California Secretary of State, www.ss.ca.gov/elections/elections.htm.
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ballot. While many commentators have expressed doubts about the advisability of a process in which anyone with a few dollars can make a policy proposal, in fact the costs and logistics of collecting signatures weed out all but the best-funded or bestorganized proponents. Important differences across states can be found in the qualication stage, when petitions are circulated for signatures. Most states require a minimum number of signatures, expressed in terms of a percentage of the votes cast for governor in the previous election. This percentage ranges from 3 percent in Massachusetts to 15 percent in Arizona. Other states also have requirements that mean the signatures cannot come simply from one area or city but have to come from a broad area, usually dened in terms of counties. Nebraska requires that 5 percent of signatures come from at least two-fths of the counties, while Wyoming requires signatures from two-thirds of all counties. States vary, too, in how much time is allowed to gather signatures. Although some states might allow more than a year (Missouri, Utah), Oregon has a fairly stringent ninety-day time limit for collecting signatures. In general, the percentage thresholds for collecting signatures were put into place when the initiative process was rst adopted, and as the population of states has grown over the past hundred years, so too has the raw number of signatures required. But time limits for circulation have not changed. Thus, where it might have taken fewer than 170 signatures per day to qualify in a state with 250,000 voters in 1900, it would require more than 1,000 signatures per day if that same state has 1.6 million voters today.6 In some states the pace of signature collection now makes it difcult for any proposal to reach the ballot unless proponents pay professional petition rms to collect signatures for them. This leads some to argue that an initiative industrial complex has subverted the Populists vision of the initiative process. In fact, the use of paid signature collectors (Beard and Schultz 1914) and professional initiative campaign staffs (McCuan et al. 1998) have been part of the process in some states since early in the twentieth century. Nevertheless, many observers argue that as qualication costs increase only special interests and the wealthy are now able to get their measures on the ballot in many states (see Broder 2000; Schrag 1998; Haskell 2001; Ellis 2002). Take, for example, California. Those who wish to get a constitutional initiative amendment onto the ballot have to gather signatures equivalent to 8 percent of the number of votes for governor (they need 5 percent for a statutory initiative). As of 2008, this meant they had to gather approximately 694,000 signatures (434,000 for statutory initiatives) within 150 days. This is a huge task. It is not surprising, then, that around 70 percent of initiative proposals fail to make it to the California ballot. That is, even after drafting a proposal, giving it to the secretary of states ofce, paying Californias $200 fee, and starting a petition drive, the overwhelming majority of proposals never obtain enough signatures to reach the ballot. During Oregons 2000
6. This example reects the situation in Oregon, assuming a 6 percent signature requirement and a ninety-day time frame.
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election cycle, for example, petitioners led 166 proposalsone-quarter of which were led by Oregon Taxpayers United. But only twenty-six measures appeared on the ballot. It should also come as no surprise that businesses expert in gathering signatures originated in California and that they export their services to initiative proponents in other states. These companies, along with other, non-California rms, hire subcontractors who employ temporary workers to gather the signatures. Some of these petition management rms advertise that they will guarantee qualicationfor a set price. A typical qualication effort might cost around $1 to $2 per signature. It can cost over $1 million simply to put a proposal on the California ballot. Even in a smaller state such as Washington or Oregon, the cost may approach $300,000. Several states, including Washington and Colorado, passed laws banning the use of paid signature gathering. The U.S. Supreme Court overturned these laws in 1988, arguing that the First Amendment protected paid petitioning as a form of political speech (Meyer v. Grant, 486 U.S. 414 [1988]). It is little wonder, then, that most proposals fail to make it to the ballot, and that those that do qualify require nancial backing by wealthy groups (unions, professional associations, and trade groups) or wealthy individuals who act as patrons for a group promoting some policy. Examples of the latter include Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen who paid for a schoolchoice measure in Washington and billionaire nancier George Soros who has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars supporting medical marijuana initiatives in several states, including Arizona, California, Colorado, and Nevada. Some states are much more frequent users of the initiative than others. In part, this reects limits placed on the use of initiatives. States that impose geographical restrictions on where signatures come from or that limit the scope of the initiatives subject matterIllinois is especially restrictivereduce the number of initiatives appearing on their ballots. Banducci (1998, 117) demonstrates that signature-gathering regulations do matter. Even when several other factors are accounted for, there are signicantly fewer initiatives in states that require proponents to collect more signatures per day. Table 5-1 provides a simple descriptive index of how difcult it is to qualify for the ballot in each state. The index accounts for whether only statutes or only constitutional measures are allowed, whether the length of the qualifying period is limited, whether requirements for a geographic distribution of signatures exist, whether the proportion of voters signatures required for qualication is relatively high, and whether the substance of what can be decided by initiative is limited. Oregon, having none of these limitations, tops the list with the most initiatives, while Mississippi, one of the most restrictive states, ranks near the bottom in initiative use. There is a modest correlation between this index and the number of initiatives qualifying in these states in the 1990s (Pearsons r = -.74).7 The imperfect correlation reects,
7. Pearsons r reects the degree of linear relationship between two variables. It ranges from -1 to +1, where +1 reects a perfect positive relationship.

Table 5-1 Index of Qualication Difculty and Initiative Use
Number from adoption to 2006 355 311 228 170 92 73 65 61 27 167 136 82 79 76 62 22 49 46 51 32 4 45 2 7
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State Oregon California Colorado North Dakota Arkansas Ohio Michigan South Dakota Idaho Arizona Washington Oklahoma Montana Missouri Massachusetts Utah Nebraska Maine Nevada Florida Illinois Alaska Mississippi Wyoming
Year adopted 1902 1911 1912 1914 1909 1912 1908 1898 1912 1912 1912 1907 1904 1906 1918 1900 1912 1908 1904 1972 1970 1959 1992 1968
Qualication difculty a 0 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 4 4 4 4 4 5 5 6
Number from 1976 to 96 86 98 46 34 16 18 18 24 13 29 39 11 27 18 25 9 13 23 13 14 1 18 1 4
Number from 1996 to 2005 66 75 41 9 14 13 11 17 8 29 39 3 18 14 14 4 14 15 23 16 0 19 1 1
S O U R C E S : Assembled by authors from data in David B. Magleby, Direct Legislation: Voting on Ballot Propositions in the United States (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1984); National Conference of State Legislatures, Initiative States Ranked in Order of Use, 18981999, and Initiative States Ranked in Order of Use, 19902004 (Denver: National Conference of State Legislatures, 2000, 2005), www.ncsl.org/programs/legman/elect/inrank.htm.
a. Higher scores equal more difculty. Points are added to the index if (1) only statutes or only constitutional measures are allowed, (2) the length of the qualifying period is limited, (3) geographic distribution of signatures is required, (4) the proportion of voter signatures that are required for qualication is between 7 and 10 percent, (5) the proportion of voter signatures that are required for qualication exceeds 10 percent, and (6) there are substantive limits on the subject matter of initiatives.
in part, that items in the index are weighted equally despite the fact that somelike geographic requirements for signaturesmay be much more of an impediment to qualication than others. Liberal qualication rules are not the sole determinant of how many initiatives make it to the ballot. States with more people per state representative, with stronger interest group systems, and with more professionalized legislatures are also likely to have more initiatives (Banducci 1998). It is clear from Table 5-1 that initiative politics play a much bigger role in western states, particularly the Pacic Coast states, where liberal access laws combine with relatively dense interest group demands. Eastern states and Midwestern states with initiatives tend to have more restrictive qualication rules, but they may also have political party organizations that play a larger role in structuring political competition, thus reducing demands for the use of initiatives (Dwyer et al. 1994). Many more initiatives reach state ballots west of the Mississippi than elsewhere.
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initiative campaigns and elections

Getting onto the ballot is just the rst major hurdle. Once qualied, a person or group sponsoring an initiative still has a campaign to ght. The campaign stage of the initiative process has attracted a considerable amount of attention from scholars. Since publication of the seminal works of David Magleby (1984) and Thomas Cronin (1989), this has probably been the most studied aspect of American direct democracy. A common argument is that well-nanced groups are advantaged in the campaign process. Some take this critique farther and argue that well-nanced campaigns may manipulate voters into passing policies that they actually do not prefer. Criticism of the process at this stage thus falls into two broad categories: a critique of the role of special interests and a critique of the process for making too many demands upon voters. We can address each of these in turn. The argument that special interests dominate the initiative process is a plausible one. After all, if it can take up to $1 million to qualify a proposal, let alone campaign for one, initiative politics obviously require signicant resources, resources that only groups may possess. The 1998 elections in California give some insight into how much spending is involved.8 In November 1998 there were twelve general election ballot measures. Of these, seven measures (Propositions 4 through 10) were initiatives placed on the ballot by petitions signed by voters. The secretary of state reported that $196,823,595 was raised to qualify, support, and oppose all twelve measures. This was the most spent on initiative campaigns in any single election in Californiaand more than presidential candidates spent in the 2000 general election nationally. The most expensive measure on the November 1998 ballot was Proposition 5, with $92 million spent to qualify and support (or oppose) an initiative to legalize gambling on Native American reservations in California. Money doesnt, however, guarantee victory. Retailers outspent wholesalers in 2006 during a $12 million campaign over a Massachusetts initiative that would have allowed wine sales in supermarkets. Voters soundly rejected the retailers initiative. These enormous sums are possible because the U.S. Supreme Court views initiative campaigns differently than it views candidate contests. The Court recognizes that large contributions to candidates may create the appearance that a candidate for ofce may be corrupted (Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U.S. 1 [1976]). This allows Congress and the states a limited ability to override First Amendment concerns and regulate the size of contributions to candidates. Contributions to initiative campaigns, in contrast, are seen as attempts at direct communication with voters rather than attempts to inuence elected ofcials. The Court reasoned that voters cannot do any favors for the donor, so they found no state interest in limits on contributions to ini8. Much of our understanding of initiative politics comes from the Pacic Coast and Colorado. Much less is known about the initiative experience in, for example, the Midwestern states of Missouri and Michigan. Part of this reects the importance of the Pacic Coast. Part, too, reects the generally more data-friendly governments in those states.
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tiative campaigns (First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti, 435 U.S. 765 [1978]). The Bellotti decision was the Courts rst to explicitly extend free speech rights to corporations (Tolbert, Lowenstein, and Donovan 1998). Put simply, there are no limits on what can be spent on initiative campaigns. Most initiative campaign spending funds TV advertising. How do voters respond? Since anyone with the money can bring an issue to the ballot, some initiatives may focus on the narrow concerns of a particular group or economic sector. Voters, furthermore, may be unfamiliar with issues of interest to such groups, issues such as the regulation of health maintenance organizations, tort reform, securities litigation, regulation of car insurance, or the status of tribal casinos. In such circumstances, they may nd it difcult to decide. After all, voters are simply asked to vote yes or no on ballot initiatives; there are no party labels on the ballot and few other cues to guide them when they vote. To complicate matters, they may also be asked their opinion on several ballot initiatives in each election. This would seem to be fertile ground for the impact of manipulative TV ad campaigns. Well-heeled special interests, the argument goes, can afford to get any issues they want onto the ballot. Once on the ballot, these same interests can afford to buy spin doctors, campaign managers, and the TV ads necessary to get voters to vote for things they do not really want or that even harm the public interest (Broder 2000, Schrag 1998). It is, we should say, a plausible argument and has to be taken seriously by initiative supporters and opponents alike. We can begin to address this argument by breaking it back into its two component parts: rst, that economic interests not citizen interestsdominate the process and, second, that voters are readily swayed by TV campaigns. Economic vs. Citizen Group Dominance One way to assess this is to ask whether narrowly focused economic interests (such as banks, industry groups, corporations, and professional associations) outspend other, broader-based citizen groups. Another is to ask whether these economic groups tend to win the initiative contests they nance. One of the most careful studies of the role of interest groups in the initiative process is Elisabeth Gerbers 1999 study, The Populist Paradox. It is difcult, of course, to cleanly divide up the proponents and opponents of initiatives into economic interests and other, broad-based interests. Gerber denes economic groups as those whose members and donors are almost exclusively rms and organizations, rather than individual citizens. Examples include the Missouri Forest Products Association, the California Beer and Wine Wholesalers, and the Washington Software Association (Gerber 1999, 6971), and specic business rms such as casino operators and tobacco giant Phillip Morris. Gerbers study of contributions from eight states found that more than $227 million was contributed to ballot measure campaigns between 1988 and 1992, with 68 percent coming from narrowly based economic groups. One interesting nding was that a negative relationship exists between the
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amounts contributed by economic, professional, and business groups in support of an initiative and the probability that that initiative will pass (Gerber 1999, 110). In another study, Gerber (1998) found that although economic interests did outspend citizen groups, most of economic group spending was defensive. Nearly 80 percent of economic group contributions were spent trying to defeat measures, while nearly 90 percent of citizen spending was in support of measures. Economic group spending in opposition is often well spent. Donovan et al. (1998, 90) also show that narrow economic groups regularly defeat initiatives supported by a broad, diffuse constituency. When economic interest groups spend in favor of their own initiatives, they rarely win. Gerber (1999, 137) concludes that economic groups are at a disadvantage in initiative contests because they lack the resources required to persuade a statewide electoral majority to vote yes on many things. Another study looking at fty-three California initiative contests in the years 19861996 found that the pass rate of propositions beneting narrow interests was only 14 percenta much lower gure than for propositions affecting broad-based groups (Donovan et al. 1998, 96). In short, while a high level of spending in support of an initiative does not appear to have a strong association with passage, a high level of spending against does. Banducci (1998) estimates that a dollar spent by the campaign advocating defeat of an initiative has almost twice as much impact on eventual vote share than a dollar spent by the side advocating passage. So-called special interests do not often seem to write public policy via the initiative, but they are successful in blocking many proposals that might affect them (Lupia and Matsusaka 2004). However, interest group campaign spending is not irrelevant. A detailed study of spending in California in 20002004 found that a $155,000 increase in TV advertising (one hundred ads) was associated with 1.1 percent more support for the yes side in a campaign, while a corresponding change in opposition spending lowered support by 0.6 percent (Stratmann 2006). Groups dont just affect the initiative process; they are also affected by it. A wider range of interest groups mobilize in initiative states. The ability to propose legislation directly to the people also changes the opportunities that interest groups have for representing people, beneting the interests of citizens who typically have less access to the legislative process than business groups (Boehmke 2005). That is, the initiative may not just be for insider groups or special interests, but may well benet grassroots groups as well. How (and What) Voters Decide on Initiatives It is more than plausible to suppose that voters are vulnerable to misleading advertising by initiative campaigns. Research suggests, however, that voters may be able to make reasonable choices on initiatives. On some issues such as abortion or gay rights voters are perfectly capable of making up their own minds. On more complex issues they may rely on information cues to help (Lupia and McCubbins 1998; Lupia 1994; Bowler and Donovan 1998). One way they do this is by noticing elite endorse-
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ments (Karp 1998; Lupia 1994; Bowler and Donovan 1998). If, for example, voters see a prominent Democrat support a proposition, then Democratic voters are likely to support the proposition and Republicans oppose it. Of course, voting on the basis of simple cues does not establish that citizens understand the details of the proposals they decide on. It may explain, however, why so few examples of successful initiatives are later found to be unpopular with the voters who approved them. But how do voters receive the cues? In ten states the secretaries of state mail voters a ballot pamphlet that lists each ballot proposal and includes arguments for and against the proposition (Dubois and Feeney 1992, 126). In those states, key information cues are given to voters in the pamphlet; for many, nding out who signed the arguments pro and con is the single most important source of information they use when making their decisions (Bowler and Donovan 1998; 2002b). A second way that voters may nd cues about an initiative is through TV ads paid for by the campaigns advocating or opposing it. Surveys show that typical voters believe that initiative campaigns are attempts to mislead (Bowler et al. 2001, 370), and that voters discount the usefulness of political ads (Bowler and Donovan 2002b). However, these ads often do provide useful cues to voters. One study of initiative campaign TV ads from several states shows that these ads often provide cues such as the names of sponsors or opponents as well as the names of prominent groups, newspapers, and politicians who have taken positions on the measure. Voters in Washington and California report using multiple sources of information when deciding on initiatives, and less than 2 percent of those who used TV ads relied on that information source exclusively (Bowler and Donovan 2002b). Spending on initiative TV ads and other campaign material probably increases public awareness of the initiatives that are the subject of the ads (Nicholson 2003). Once an ad or series of ads is broadcast, then general awareness of the initiative question is raised, and at that point citizens might pay a little more attention to the news or the ballot pamphlet. This may explain, in part, why one study found higher levels of general knowledge about politics in states with prominent initiative campaigns (M. Smith 2002). There are some variations across time and states, but overall fewer than half around 40 percentof all initiatives pass. Multiple studies have established that initiatives are most likely to pass when supported by citizen groups (Gerber 1998; 1999) and when the initiative allocates broad, nondivisible benets to a large, diffuse constituency (Donovan et al. 1998; Campbell 1997; Ernst 2001). Most initiatives that pass can be seen as a change that, for better or worse, taps into the preferences and concerns of the broader public. Initiatives and the Context of State Electoral Politics Initiative campaigns can alter a states political context or electoral mood by helping to dene the major issues at stake, and candidates can take advantage of that fact. Classic examples of this are Pete Wilsons come-from-behind reelection in 1994 beneting from an anti-illegal-immigration initiative (Proposition 187) and a Utah
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Democratic congressional candidate being elected in part because Democrats were mobilized by a nuclear waste initiative (Makin 2006). Work by Nicholson (2005) represents the best treatment yet of the relationship between the issues raised in initiative contests and the ways candidates try to use the issues for their own purposes. Nicholson also addresses the reverse effect: when popular views of candidates are shaped by ballot initiatives. There is also systematic evidence that initiatives affect who participates in state elections. A number of recent studies (Tolbert, Grummel, and Smith 2001; M. Smith 2001) have shown that initiative use increases turnout. Mark Smiths analysis (2001) suggests that highly salient initiatives have the greatest effect, particularly in off-year (nonpresidential year) state elections. Journalists (Dao 2004, for example) have credited George W. Bushs 2004 narrow reelection (a 118,000 margin in Ohio) to conservative voters mobilized by the states same-sex marriage ban initiative. Most academic studies (Abramowitz 2004; Hillygus and Shields 2005; Donovan, Tolbert, and Smith 2005) stress that other issues were more important than gay marriage in the 2004 presidential race, and none shows that the Ohio initiative was decisive in Bushs victory. However, surveys show that concern about gay marriage was a stronger predictor of voting for Bush in states where gay marriage was on the 2004 ballot, and Ohio voters who said they came to the polls because of the marriage initiative were overwhelmingly supportive of Bush (Donovan, Tolbert, and Smith 2005). Some candidates use state initiatives to make explicit differences between themselves and an opponent. In 2006 Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., defeated Missouris incumbent U.S. senator, Jim Talent, in part by embracing a stem-cell research initiative that Talent opposed. Daniel Smith (1998) shows how parties use initiatives to promote wedge issues they hope will split their opponents base of support. Major examples of this from the past decade are the issues of afrmative action and immigration initiatives. Republicans adopted and promoted California initiatives to restrict afrmative action and another measure restricting services to illegal immigrants, hoping that Democrats across the nation would be forced to adopt policy positions that would harm their chances for reelection. This discussion has focused on initiative campaigns and elections and the direct effects initiatives have on a states political context. Initiatives also shape state politics in other ways, by changing how people see themselves as citizens.
effects on citizens and state p olitics

A body of democratic theory proposes that people learn how to be citizens by making decisions in groups and by participating in politics (see Pateman 1970). Greater democratic participation may thus have an educative role for citizens. Some suggest that ballot initiatives, by forcing people to deliberate about public issues, constitute a form of participatory democracy that leads to a more engaged, informed, and interested citizenry. Direct voting on policy matters, this logic suggests, may increase discussion about public policy and, at least at a minimal level, force voters to think more about policy issues on the ballot.
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A number of recent studies show that there might be some merit to these ideas. As noted, initiatives are associated with increased voter turnout. In fact, some voters will turn out and vote on an initiative contest when the candidate races on the ballot might otherwise have led them to stay at home. In 2004 four of the ve propositions in Washington State saw more votes cast than were cast in the race for lieutenant governor, and all ve saw more votes cast than were cast for secretary of state and treasurer. The presence of highly visible initiatives on a state ballot may also be associated with higher levels of general knowledge about politics. Mark Smith (2002) found that voters have higher levels of factual knowledge about politics where initiatives are used more frequently. Bowler and Donovan (2002a) found that citizens in states with frequent initiative use feel more competent when participating in politics, are more likely to think that they have a say, and are more likely to think that public ofcials care about what they think.
initiatives and minorities

Many worry that the initiative process can be used to harm minoritiesparticularly groups such as gays and lesbians and racial, ethnic, linguistic, and religious minorities (Gamble 1997; Hajnal, Gerber, and Louch 2002). Those who worry about repressive majorities can point to a series of anti-minority measures passed at the ballot box. Initiatives have emerged proposing the repeal of afrmative action in California, Florida, Michigan, and Washington. Initiatives concerning immigration, bilingual education, and English being declared the ofcial language for the United States have appeared in several states (Citrin, Reingold, and Walters 1990). Initiatives and referendums to ban same-sex marriage appeared on thirteen state ballots in 2004 and eight more in 2006. One key question, then, is whether on the whole the initiative process is repressive of minorities. Hajnal, Gerber, and Louch (2002) ask how often racial and ethnic minority voters are on the losing side when they vote on initiatives. If the initiative process is repressive, then ethnic minorities should be consistently in the voting minority. They nd, however, that minority voters are no more likely to be supporting the losing side in an initiative contest than white voters. The reason for this is quite straightforward: members of ethnic minorities are concerned about the same series of issues as everyone else and not just a single issue: on some of these issues they are in the opinion majority; on others they are not. The issue of gay rights has been one of the more contentious areas of initiative politics and minority rights, as politically conservative Christian activists have repeatedly sought to use the initiative to attack gay rights (Gamble 1997). Early examples of these attempts include a 1988 California proposal to quarantine those with AIDS. From the 1970s through 2000, proposals of this severity mostly failed at the state level (Donovan and Bowler 1998). By moderating their proposals, proponents have had much more success with such examples as the defense-of-marriage measures. By the end of 2006, twenty-three states had approved constitutional amendments dening
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marriage as between a man and a woman. Only two states (Arizona and Colorado) rejected variants of these measures. Regardless of whether anti-minority measures pass or fail, they may have effects on the publics regard for minorities. By simply targeting a minority group, initiatives can change the publics attitudes about the group (or about policies that benet the group), and mass opinion can become less tolerant of the targeted minority group (Wenzel, Donovan, and Bowler 1998). Cain and Miller (2001, 52) argue that the limited evidence does suggest that the initiative process . . . is sometimes prone to produce laws that disadvantage relatively powerless minoritiesand probably is more likely than legislatures to do so. Indeed, Haider-Markel, Querze, and Lindaman (2007) show that progay rights laws are more likely to be approved by legislatures than by voters, while anti-gay outcomes are more likely under direct democracy than in a legislature.
initiatives and state p olicy

A number of scholars propose that the initiative causes public policy to better reect the preferences of voters. The effect need not be due to an initiative passing, or even reaching, the ballot. Rather, the mere existence of the initiative process can change how legislators behave. If legislators know that there is a credible threat of passing a popular measure by initiative, they could have greater incentives to pass some version of it themselves in order to maintain some ability to shape the eventual policy. Initiatives can also send legislators signals about what the public wants done on key policy matters (Romer and Rosenthal 1979; Gerber 1996). In states without the process of initiative, legislators face different pressures and may have fewer clear signals about what the public wants. Some studies nd that certain public policies in initiative statesspending on certain state programs, abortion regulations, death penalty laws, and some civil rights policiesmore closely match public opinion in initiative states than in non-initiative states (Arceneaux 2002; Gerber 1996; Gerber 1999; Matsusaka 1995). Others nd no such effect (Lascher, Hagen, and Rochlin 1996; Camobreco 1998). Many of these studies examine different policy areas, however, and use different methods. Gerber (1996; 1999) nds that the presence of the initiative process in a state makes state death penalty and parental abortion notication laws better reect that states public opinion, while Lascher, Hagen, and Rochlin (1996) investigate a menu of different policies. Matsusaka (2001; 2007) argues that if proper statistical models are used, there is evidence that states with initiatives have policies that more closely match voter preferences. One policy area where the initiative has a clear, direct impact is in what Tolbert, Lowenstein, and Donovan (1998) call governance policies. Voters in initiative states frequently pass measures that amend the political system itself. By giving groups outside the legislature a tool to craft policies, initiatives can advance policies that run counter to the self-interests of elected ofcials. States with the initiative process are much more likely to have adopted policies that constrain how legislators govern: term limits, supermajority requirements for new taxes, tax and expenditure limita-
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tions (Tolbert, Lowenstein, and Donovan 1998), and campaign nance reforms (Pippen, Bowler, and Donovan 2002). The general effect of these reforms has been to give a different character to state politics in initiative states. Supporters of the initiative process say this is just as it should be. One of the original purposes of the initiative as an institution was to make policy that was more responsive to voter demands. If, for example, legislatures kept increasing taxes beyond the willingness of voters to pay, then the initiative would allow someone to put in place mechanisms to restrain future tax increases such as Californias Proposition 13 (1978), Oregons Measure 5 (1990), Colorados Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR) amendment (1991), or Washingtons I-695 (2000). When voters grow weary of the initiative-induced scal constraints they place on their legislators, they may eventually vote to suspend the constraintsas Colorado voters did with TABOR in 2005. Similarly, if legislators do not allocate enough money to a particular program, then groups outside the legislature can demand those monies be allocated directly to specic programs. Education unions have been skilled at promoting such initiatives. The California Teachers Association, for example, passed Proposition 98 in 1988 to mandate that a xed percentage of state general fund revenues go to K12 education, while the Washington Education Association sponsored the successful initiative I-732 that mandated pay raises for Washington States teachers. It is important to remember that these mandates for increased spending and limits on revenue can constrain legislatures both in the present and, potentially, in the future. The extent of constraint depends on how (or if) a state constitution allows legislators to amend or repeal initiatives that voters approved. Term limits are another example of initiative-induced constraints on legislators. Initiative states, for example, tend to have term-limited legislatures, non-initiative stateswith the exception of Louisianado not (Cain and Miller 2001, 49). Initiative Effects on State Fiscal Policy By opening law-making and constitutional amendment processes to those outside of the legislature, a states political system can be re-engineered by the visionaryand the vindictive. Direct democracy has allowed outsidersparticularly antitax advocatesthe opportunity to institutionalize rules that constrain taxing and spending. It also allows an additional point of access for groups seeking their slice of the budget pie. This means voters may be asked to cut property taxes, increase tobacco taxes, guarantee a certain share of general funds for education, or authorize teacher pay raises and smaller class sizes. A single ballot may thus contain choices for cutting some taxes, raising others, issuing public debt for specic projects, and increasing spending on specic programs. In most states, choices about increasing spending need not be linked to specic proposals about where the revenue will come from. Likewise, choices about cutting taxes typically need not be linked to specic programs that will lose funding. Over time the disconnect between spending and revenue may worsen.
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Little is known about how voters reason about such choices over time. The electorates in several states have voted on scal matters in ways that may seem, on the surface, somewhat contradictory. Washington voted to limit revenues in 1992 and to cut taxes in 1999; voters then approved dramatic increases for spending on education in 2000. While continuing to support property tax limits, the California electorate later mandated funds for K12 education and approved a sales tax increase to fund police and re protection. Likewise, voters in other states can be found saying no to one kind of tax (usually property) while approving others (usually targeted sales taxes or lotteries). One reason for this may be that people tend to be more aware of, and hostile to, property taxes than sales taxes (Bowler and Donovan 1995). The consequences of these scal initiatives on, for example, state budgets and bond ratings may be more enduring than the effects of other initiatives that pass (Donovan and Bowler 1998). All of this presents several important questions about voters, initiatives, and state scal policies. That is, when given such a free hand in budgeting, do voters consider the scal trade-offs implicit in such choices? Are they as capable of budgeting as a legislature? Fiscal crisis may result if they are not. Some see Oregon as an object lesson. The anti-tax Measure 5 in 1990 was followed by another antiproperty tax Measure 47 in 1996, which was intended to x the problems in Measure 5. Measure 50 (in 1997) was then put forward to try to amend Measure 47. Subsequent measures originating in the legislature sought to increase taxes to avoid budget cuts produced by earlier ballot measures. These measures (28 in 2003 and 30 in 2004) were defeated. Observers see Oregons state and local nances as overly reliant on user fees and seemingly locked into rounds of scal crisis and poor or interrupted public services in part because a core of organized and motivated anti-tax policy entrepreneurs have held sway in initiative politics (Thompson and Green 2004). Others, however, see Oregon as an example of a state where citizens simply prefer the combination of lower taxes and fewer services to higher taxes and more services. The scal position of initiative states is thus likely to be different from that in non-initiative states, with initiative states imposing more constraints on politicians than non-initiative states. One problem with this is that legislators may have greater difculty writing coherent budgets in initiative states. Peter Schrag (1998), one of the ercest and also one of the most thoughtful critics of the initiative process, is especially scathing on this point. It may be the case that various initiative mandates and restrictions leave politicians with relatively little budgetary wiggle room, which may be especially problematic during economic downturns.
the legisl atures role: implementation and amendabilit y

The process of initiative undoubtedly constrains elected ofcials. But some state legislatures are more insulated from the effects of initiatives than others. If a state does not allow constitutional amendments, for example, or does not allow some

Table 5-2 State Legislature Insulation from the Initiative Process
State California Arkansas Arizona Michigan North Dakota Oregon Colorado Idaho Oklahoma South Dakota Utah Washington Legislative insulation index a 1 2 3 3 3 3 4 4 4 4 4 4 State Illinois Nevada Florida Alaska Missouri Montana Nebraska Ohio Mississippi Maine Massachusetts Wyoming
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Legislative insulation index a 5 5 5 6 6 6 6 6 7 8 8 9
S O U R C E S : Assembled by authors from data in National Conference of State Legislatures, Final Report and Recommendations of the NCSL I&R Task Force (Denver: National Conference of State Legislatures, 2002); and Elisabeth R. Gerber, Legislative Response to the Threat of the Popular Initiative, American Journal of Political Science 40 (1996): 99128.
a. Higher scores reect that the legislature has greater ability to affect initiatives and is more insulated from their effects. Points are added to the index if (1) the state has a single-subject rule, (2) if there are limits on the substance of initiatives, (3) if there are limits on scal initiatives, (4) if the legislature can amend or repeal initiative statutes, (5) if the legislature can repeal initiative statutes without a waiting period, (6) if the legislature can repeal initiative statutes without a supermajority, (7) if the state has no constitutional initiatives, (8) if the state has direct and indirect initiatives, and (9) if the state has indirect initiatives only.
types of scal measures to be passed through the initiative, then that states initiative measures are likely to place fewer constraints on a legislature. Statutory initiatives are more readily amended or repealed by the legislature in some states (such as Colorado, Maine, Idaho, and Missouri), while other states require waiting periods, supermajorities, or both, before an initiative may be amended. California is the only state where the legislature can neither amend nor repeal an initiative statute. In contrast, where legislatures are more insulated from the initiative process, voters may pass a proposal only to have it changed by a legislature later on. We created a nine-item index reecting factors that insulate a state legislature from the initiative process. Table 5-2 ranks states in terms of how much their legislatures may be insulated from the effects of the initiative process. Californiawith constitutional amendments, no legislative ability to amend statutes, no restrictions on scal initiatives, and no indirect initiativesstands out as the least insulated. Wyoming, Maine, and Massachusetts rank as most insulated from the initiatives effects. In states at the opposite end of the continuum from California, legislatures have the discretion of ignoring, rejecting, or modifying initiatives that voters approve. The potential effects of initiatives on the legislatureand on policyare better illustrated when Table 5-1 and Table 5-2 are considered together. For example, while the Arkansas legislature may have less formal control over initiatives that pass than the Oregon legislature (Table 5-2), it is easier to qualify initiatives in Oregon (Table 5-1). Meanwhile, with relatively easy qualication processes, high initiative use, and limited legislative insulation from the effects of initiatives, California and Oregon represent the ideal type of direct democracy at work. Not surprisingly, then, a considerable body of work considers the workings of the initiative in these two states.
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Even without the power of formal amendment, legislators may still nd ways around fully implementing initiatives that they nd too burdensome. This is the theme of Stealing the Initiative (Gerber et al. 2001, 109); the authors take as a starting point the idea that initiatives do not implement or enforce themselves. Some initiatives try to build in enforcement provisions that make it harder for politicians to cheat the popular will, but most measures have to leave some discretion to politicians either wittingly or, in the case of badly drafted initiatives, unwittingly. Take, for example, Matsusakas (1995) nding that spending in initiative states is lower at the state level but higher at the local level. One explanation for this is that state governments can avoid citizen-initiated tax and expenditure limitations (TELs) by establishing new local jurisdictionsspecial service districtsthat were not affected by earlier anti-tax initiatives (Bowler and Donovan 2001). In the 1990s initiative states saw a owering of special governments such as sewer districts, water districts, re districts, and the like, partly in response to TELs imposed at the state level. Thus, one way around TELs at the state level is to push taxing and spending down to counties and special governments. The result is that the policy impact of most initiatives reects a compromise between what electoral majorities and government actors want (Gerber et al. 2001, 110). Governing is different in initiative states, but this does not mean that the initiative process has supplanted the role of the legislature. Some journalists go so far as to suggest that initiatives have rendered some state legislatures meaningless. Yet the evidence suggests that the legislature is able to manage within the constraints imposed by the initiative process. According to ones view as either a supporter or opponent of the initiative process, this means that state legislatures can be seen as capable of either defending themselves or subverting popular wishes. After all, if most initiatives are defeated at the ballot box, or may be amended after they have passed, or not be fully implemented by state government, it is pretty clear that the critics of the process are greatly overstating the threat that initiatives offer to republican government.
the courts role: legal challenges

Legislators, political parties, and interest groups are not the only actors who inuence the fate of initiatives. Initiatives are embedded in the system of checks and balances through the judicial process. Initiatives, like any other law, must be consistent with both the U.S. Constitution and the relevant state constitution, and must abide by the states regulations on the initiative process as well. As we noted above, nearly all states courts play no role in evaluating measures before they are voted on. But they do play a substantial role once measures are approved by voters. Courts tend to reason that no one has legal standing to challenge an initiativein terms of constitutionality, conformity with single-subject rules, and other mattersunless it has passed and actually begins to affect policy. Otherwise, state and federal courts fear, they would be overstepping their role and affecting voter decisions if they provided a pre-election review of a measures constitutionality. The result of this resistance to rule on initiatives before elections means
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that voters quite often approve measures that are later invalidated by state and federal courts. There is some conict among observers of initiatives as to what the courts proper role should be. Advocates of the juris-populists approach argue that because initiatives are the direct, undiluted expression of popular will, the courts should give greater deference to initiatives than they might give to bills approved by legislatures (Cain and Miller 2001). In practice, however, state and federal courts treat initiative laws just like laws passed by legislatures. Ellis (2002) notes that some legal scholars argue that initiatives should be given even greater scrutiny than legislative bills because initiatives are not subject to the same checks and balances as other laws (that is, there is no possibility of a veto threat by the governor) and because initiatives have not been vetted through the rigors of the legislative drafting process. Others argue for greater court activity prior to elections to prevent unconstitutional matters from being the subject of campaigns (see Ellis 2002; Haskell 2001). Still other observers worry that some state courts, particularly those selected or reappointed via popular election, might be reluctant to overturn voter-approved initiatives out of fear that voters will punish them when they stand for reelection (Eule 1990). Some observers believe that courts in practice have become too willing to strike down initiatives. Miller (1999) demonstrates that most state initiatives in a set of states he examined were challenged in court, with 40 percent overturned in whole or in part. This high level of litigation might reect the willingness of those who lose at the ballot box to try and nd a way to win through the courts and so give judges opportunity to exercise power. Holman and Stern (1998) show that plaintiffs challenging successful initiatives in court are able to venue shopthat is, they can le cases in different districts of either state or federal courts in order to nd those judges most likely to grant them a favorable ruling. As Qvortrup (2001, 197) notes, the courts increasingly are encroaching upon decisions made by the citizens themselves. He notes that more than half of recent initiatives in three states have been challenged by the courts, and over half of those challenges resulted in invalidation of the initiative. Long-term Effects of Initiatives All of this creates the potential for initiative-fueled cycles of change. Initiatives may alter state policy directly by providing an additional point of access for groups seeking to change the substance of what government does. Thus advocates of decriminalization of drugs, physician-assisted suicide, minimum-wage increases, or nearly any other policy have the potential to do an end run around the legislature and make their appeals straight to voters. More important, initiatives also have effects on state policies that are less direct but potentially more enduring. As we discussed above, the existence of the initiative device may affect how legislators behave by increasing the likelihood that they will take note of the publics substantive policy preferences. That is, it allows groups an additional tool to pressure legislators into passing something that might be popular
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with voters. In the long run, then, in some policy arenas legislatures in initiative states may come to adopt policies more in line with public preferences. But direct democracy provides more than just another access point to the legislative process. It allows those outside of the legislature and the traditional centers of power to have the ability to permanently change institutions of government that structure how policy may be made. Initiatives have been used to rewrite state rules about how judges sentence criminals, about how much a state may collect via existing taxes, and how much the legislature may spend in a given year. Initiatives have been used to change rules about how legislatures approve new taxes, and initiatives have placed limits on how often legislators may run for reelection. These rule changes have consequences in the long run. They limit the range of policy options available to future legislatures. This is particularly evident in states that allow constitutional initiatives. To illustrate how radically different politics in initiative states are from, say, U.S. politics generally, consider who drives the process of amending the U.S. Constitution or other constitutions in non-initiative states. At the federal level, supermajorities of both houses of Congress are required to propose amendments that must then be approved by at least three-quarters of the statesusually by the state legislatures. At both stages, incumbent representatives control the process. In non-initiative states, a state constitutional amendment may be referred to the voters for approval, but again, the amendment is written by the legislature. Under these conditions, changes in rules about how politics are conducted are largely shaped by actors who have to live with the consequences but who also have a vested interest in those consequences.
conclusion
Critics of initiative politics in the American states nd fault with applying the Populists reasoning to the contemporary era. For one thing, overt corruption among legislators is no longer the norm, as state legislatures have been professionalized over the past several decades. Furthermore, Richard Ellis (2002), Daniel Smith (1998), and others have demonstrated that contemporary initiative proponents often fail to t the Populist vision of concerned citizens who turn amateur politician in order to prod a state legislature toward adopting policies that reect the publics concerns. As we saw, critics have advanced sustained critiques against the initiative process as a kind of faux populism. Instead of making politics more democratic or more responsive to the will of the voters, they argue, the initiative process may simply give well-established interests yet another point of access to the system or tie up the policymaking system of the state. Consequently, there are consistent calls for reform. Most reforms to the process, however, are generated from within the states political institutions and are often couched in terms of a desire to protect the integrity of the process and prevent corruption or the appearance of corruption (see, for example, Drage [2001]). For the reformers, the question is whether the process can really
provide for an informed, deliberative discussion and debate on important issues (Speakers Commission on the California Initiative Process 2002). Some reformers seek to limit the role of paid activists (as Colorado sought to do; see Drage [2001, 230]) or give greater say to the politicians prior to a vote (as the California suggestions seek to do), which also means limits on propositions. They make it harder to propose issues and can, as the warning language proposal would surely do, make it harder to pass proposals. If voters as they vote are told, for example, that they are voting on a proposal that may well be unconstitutional, it seems reasonable to suppose that fewer people will actually vote on the proposal and that more people will vote no. And so, while attempts at reform seemand quite possibly aredriven by the purest of intentions, some of the consequences of proposed reforms might be to raise the hurdles higher for those who would use the process. If these hurdles come in the form of increased costs, it follows that the playing eld would be further skewed to advantage those who can raise large amounts of money. Although they might (slightly) limit the number of measures on ballots in some states, in fact many of the reform proposals offer few cures for the ills that supposedly ail the initiative process. At the same time as politicians in states with the initiative process seek to limit it, politicians in other states have at least made claims to want to introduce the process. In recent years, governors of Louisiana (Murphy Mike Foster), Minnesota (Jesse Ventura), New York (George Pataki), and Texas (Bill Clements) made public their support of the process, but none invested much energy in promoting it. The Republican-controlled New York State Senate in a 5110 vote approved a 2006 constitutional amendment to provide New Yorkers the initiative and referendum, but the legislation was not considered by the lower house, controlled by the Democratic Party. On the one hand, then, we see a series of reforms aimed at limiting the process. On the other, we see at least some attempts at expansion of the process that may result in its wider use. Yet attempts to limit the initiative process have met legal obstacles (Drage 2001), and its appeal to voters remains big. The process is hugely popular wherever it is employed. Furthermore, there is little agreement on what should be altered: Signature gathering? The majorities required? A limitation on what can be passed? It is all too easy to limit the process until it isas in Illinois and Mississippia case of direct democracy in name only. It is easy enough to see how to neuter the process; it is harder to keep its good qualities. When voters are surveyedwhether in initiative or non-initiative statesthey usually show overwhelming support for the process. To be sure, voters have some concerns, but the popular appeal of the process re-
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expect a widening, not a narrowing, of the use of direct democracy. American government is the peoples government, and it is presumably for the people to decide how their government functions.
ke y terms
governance policies, 142 indirect initiatives, 130 legislative referendum, 130 Populists, 128 Progressives, 128 single-subject rules, 131 statutory initiatives, 129 supermajority, 129 venue shop, 147
references
Abramowitz, Alan. 2004. Terrorism, Gay Marriage and Incumbency: Explaining the Republican Victory in the 2004 Presidential Election. The Forum 2: Article 3. Arceneaux, Kevin. 2002. Direct Democracy and the Link Between Public Opinion and State Abortion Policy. State Politics and Policy Quarterly 2: 372387. Baldassare, Mark, and Joshua Dyck. 2006. The Nature and Limits of Support for Direct Democracy. Paper presented at the American Political Science Association meeting, Philadelphia, August 31September 3. Banducci, Susan. 1998. Direct Legislation: When Is It Used and When Does It Pass? In Citizens as Legislators: Direct Democracy in the United States, ed. S. Bowler, T. Donovan, and C. Tolbert. Columbus: Ohio State University Press. Beard, Charles, and Bril E. Schultz. 1914. Documents on the State-wide Initiative, Referendum, and Recall. New York: Macmillan. Boehmke, Fredrick. 2005. The Indirect Effect of Direct Democracy: How Institutions Shape Interest Group Systems. Columbus: Ohio State University Press. Bowler, Shaun, and Todd Donovan. 1995. Popular Responsiveness to Taxation. Political Research Quarterly 48: 7799. . 1998. Demanding Choices: Opinion and Voting in Direct Democracy. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. . 2001. Fiscal Illusion and State Tax and Expenditure Limitations. Paper presented at the State of the States Conference, Texas A&M University, College Station, March 23. . 2002a. Democracy, Institutions and Attitudes about Citizen Inuence on Government. British Journal of Political Science 32: 371390. . 2002b. Do Voters Have a Cue? TV Ads as a Source of Information in Referendum Voting. European Journal of Political Research 41: 777793. Bowler, Shaun, Todd Donovan, Max Neiman, and Johnny Peel. 2001. Institutional Threat and Partisan Outcomes: Legislative Candidates Attitudes toward Direct Democracy. State Politics and Policy Quarterly 1: 364379. Broder, David S. 2000. Democracy Derailed: Initiative Campaigns and the Power of Money. New York: Harcourt. Butler, David, and Austin Ranney, eds. 1994. Referendums around the World: The Growing Use of Direct Democracy. Washington, D.C.: AEI Press. Cain, Bruce E., and Kenneth P. Miller. 2001. The Populist Legacy: Initiatives and the Undermining of Representative Government. In Dangerous Democracy? The Battle over Ballot Initiatives in America, ed. Larry J. Sabato, Howard Ernst, and Bruce A. Larson. Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littleeld. Camobreco, John F. 1998. Preferences, Fiscal Policies, and the Initiative Process. Journal of Politics 60: 891929. Campbell, Anne. 1997. The Citizens Initiative and Entrepreneurial Politics: Direct Democracy in Colorado, 19661994. Paper presented at the Western Political Science Association meeting, Tucson.
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Citrin, Jack, Beth Reingold, and Evelyn Walters. 1990. The Ofcial English Movement and the Symbolic Politics of Language in the United States. Western Political Quarterly 43: 553560. Cronin, Thomas. 1989. Direct Democracy: The Politics of Initiative, Referendum, and Recall. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Dao, James. 2004. Same-Sex Marriage Issue Key to Some GOP Races. New York Times, November 4. Donovan, Todd, and Shaun Bowler. 1998. Responsive or Responsible Government. In Citizens as Legislators, ed. Bowler, Donovan, and Tolbert. Donovan, Todd, Shaun Bowler, and David S. McCuan. 2001. Political Consultants and the Initiative Industrial Complex. In Dangerous Democracy? ed. Sabato, Ernst, and Larson. Donovan, Todd, Shaun Bowler, David McCuan, and Kenneth Fernandez. 1998. Contending Players and Strategies: Opposition Advantages in Initiative Elections. In Citizens as Legislators, ed. Bowler, Donovan, and Tolbert. Donovan, Todd, Caroline Tolbert, and Daniel A. Smith. 2005. Do State-Level Ballot Measures Affect Presidential Elections? Gay Marriage and the 2004 Election. Paper presented at the American Political Science Association meeting, Washington, D.C., August 31. Drage, Jeannie. 2001. State Efforts to Regulate the Initiative Process. In The Battle Over Citizen Law Making, ed. M. Dane Waters. Durham, N.C.: Carolina Academic Press. Dubois, Philip L., and Floyd F. Feeney. 1992. Improving the California Initiative Process: Options for Change. Berkeley: California Policy Seminar, University of California. Dwyer, Diane, M. OGoorman, J. Stonecash, and R. Young. 1994. Disorganized Politics and the Have Nots: Politics and Taxes in New York and California. Polity 27: 2547. Ellis, Richard. 2002. Democratic Delusions: The Initiative Process in America. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press. Ernst, Howard R. 2001. The Historical Role of Narrow-Material Interests in Initiative Politics. In Dangerous Democracy? ed. Sabato, Ernst, and Larson. Eule, Julian. 1990. Judicial Review of Direct Democracy. Yale Law Journal 99: 1504. Gamble, Barbara S. 1997. Putting Civil Rights to a Popular Vote. American Journal of Political Science 91: 245269. Gerber, Elisabeth R. 1996. Legislative Response to the Threat of the Popular Initiative. American Journal of Political Science 40: 99128. . 1998. Interest Group Inuence in the California Initiative Process. Background Paper 115. San Francisco: Public Policy Institute of California. . 1999. The Populist Paradox: Interest Group Inuence and the Promise of Direct Legislation. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Gerber, Elisabeth R., Arthur Lupia, Mathew D. McCubbins, D. Roderick Kiewiet. 2001. Stealing the Initiative: How State Government Responds to Direct Democracy. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall. Haider-Markel, Donald P., Alana Querze, and Kara Lindaman. 2007. Lose, Win or Draw? A Reexamination of Direct Democracy and Minority Rights. Political Research Quarterly 60: 304313. Hajnal, Zoltan, Elisabeth R. Gerber, and Hugh Louch. 2002. Minorities and Direct Legislation: Evidence from California Ballot Proposition Elections. Journal of Politics 64: 154177. Haskell, John. 2001. Direct Democracy or Representative Government? Dispelling the Populist Myth. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press. Hillygus, D. Sunshine, and Todd G. Shields. 2005. Moral Issues and Voter Decision Making in the 2004 Presidential Election. PS: Political Science and Politics 38: 201209. Holman, Craig. 2002. An Assessment of New Jerseys Proposed Limited Initiative Process. New York: Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law. Holman, Craig, and Robert Stern. 1998. Judicial Review of Ballot Initiatives: The Changing Role of State and Federal Courts. Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review 31: 12391266. Johnson, Claudius. 1944. The Adoption of the Initiative and Referendum in Washington. Pacic Northwest Quarterly 35: 291304. Karp, Jeffrey A. 1998. The Inuence of Elite Endorsements in Initiative Campaigns. In Citizens as Legislators, ed. Bowler, Donovan, and Tolbert.
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Lascher, Edward L., M. Hagen, and S. Rochlin. 1996. Gun Behind the Door? Ballot Initiatives, State Politics, and Public Opinion. Journal of Politics 58: 760775. Lowenstein, Daniel H. 1995. Election Law: Cases and Materials. Durham, N.C.: Carolina Academic Press. Lupia, Arthur. 1994. Shortcuts versus Encyclopedias: Information and Voting Behavior in California Insurance Reform Elections. American Political Science Review 88: 6376. Lupia, Arthur, and John Matsusaka. 2004. Direct Democracy: New Approaches to Old Questions. Annual Review of Political Science 7: 46382. Lupia, Arthur, and Matthew McCubbins. 1998. The Democratic Dilemma: Can Citizens Learn What They Need to Know? New York: Cambridge University Press. Magleby, David B. 1984. Direct Legislation: Voting on Ballot Propositions in the United States. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. . 1994. Direct Legislation in the American States. In Referendums around the World, ed. Butler and Ranney. Makin, Jeffrey. 2006. Are Ballot Propositions Spilling Over onto Candidate Elections? Report 2006-2. Los Angeles: University of Southern California, Initiative and Referendum Institute. Matsusaka, John. 1995. Fiscal Effects of the Voter Initiative: Evidence from the Last 30 Years. Journal of Political Economy 103: 587623. . 2001. Problems with a Methodology Used to Evaluate the Effect of Ballot Initiatives on Policy Responsiveness. Journal of Politics 63: 12501256. McCuan, David, Shaun Bowler, Todd Donovan, and Ken Fernandez. 1998. Californias Political Warriors: Campaign Professionals and the Initiative Process. In Citizens as Legislators, ed. Bowler, Donovan, and Tolbert. Miller, Kenneth P. 1999. The Role of Courts in the Initiative Process. Paper presented at the American Political Science Association meeting, Atlanta, September 25. National Conference of State Legislatures. 2005. Initiative States Ranked in Order of Use, 19002004. Denver, Colo.: National Conference of State Legislatures. www.ncsl.org/programs/ legismgt/elect/inrank.htm. . 2006. Initiative Subject Restrictions. Denver, Colo.: National Conference of State Legislatures. www.ncsl.org/programs/legismgt/elect/SubRestrict.htm. Nicholson, Stephen P. 2003. The Political Environment and Ballot Proposition Awareness. American Journal of Political Science 47: 403410. . 2005. Voting the Agenda. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Pateman, Carole. 1970. Participation and Democratic Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pippen, John, Shaun Bowler, and Todd Donovan. 2002. Election Reform and Direct Democracy: The Case of Campaign Finance Regulations in the American States. American Politics Research 30: 559582. Qvortrup, Mads. 2001. The Courts v. the People: An Essay on Judicial Review of Initiatives. In The Battle Over Citizen Law Making, ed. Waters. Romer, Thomas, and Howard Rosenthal. 1979. The Elusive Median Voter. Journal of Public Economics 12: 143170. Schrag, Peter. 1998. Paradise Lost: Californias Experience, Americas Future. New York: New Press. Schuman, David. 1994. The Origin of State Constitutional Direct Democracy: William Simon URen and The Oregon System. Temple University Law Review 67: 947963. Smith, Daniel A. 1998. Tax Crusaders and the Politics of Direct Democracy. New York: Routledge. Smith, Daniel A., and Caroline Tolbert. 2001. The Initiative to Party: Partisanship and Ballot Initiatives in California. Party Politics 7: 781799. Smith, Mark A. 2001. The Contingent Effects of Ballot Initiatives and Candidate Races on Turnout. American Journal of Political Science 45: 700706. . 2002. Ballot Initiatives and the Democratic Citizen. Journal of Politics 64: 892903. Speakers Commission on the California Initiative Process. 2002. Final Report. Sacramento: Speakers Commission on the California Initiative Process. Stratmann, Thomas. 2006. Is Spending More Potent For or Against a Proposition? Evidence from Ballot Measures. American Journal of Political Science 50: 788801. Sutro, Stephen. 1994. Interpretations of Initiatives. Santa Clara Law Review 34: 945976.
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Thompson, Fred, and Mark T. Green. 2004. Vox Populi? Oregon Tax and Expenditure Limitation Initiatives. Public Budgeting & Finance 24: 7387. Tolbert, Caroline, John Grummel, and Daniel Smith. 2001. The Effects of Ballot Initiatives on Voter Turnout in the American States. American Politics Review 29: 625648. Tolbert, Caroline, Daniel H. Lowenstein, and Todd Donovan. 1998. Election Law and Rules for Using Initiatives. In Citizens as Legislators, ed. Bowler, Donovan, and Tolbert. Wenzel, James, Todd Donovan, and Shaun Bowler. 1998. Direct Democracy and Minorities: Changing Attitudes about Minorities Targeted by Initiatives. In Citizens as Legislators, ed. Bowler, Donovan, and Tolbert.
suggested readings
Print
Boehmke, Fredrick. The Indirect Effect of Direct Democracy: How Institutions Shape Interest Group Systems. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2005. A rich study of how the existence of the initiative process affects interest group representation. Gerber, Elisabeth R. The Populist Paradox: Interest Group Inuence and the Promise of Direct Legislation. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999. Examines the role of groups in initiative campaigns; concludes that it is difcult for economic groups to sell most of their initiatives to voters. Nicholson, Stephen. Voting the Agenda: Candidates, Elections and Ballot Propositions. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005. Shows that initiatives affect the issues that voters use when evaluating candidates. Smith, Daniel, and Caroline J. Tolbert. Educated by Initiative: The Effects of Direct Democracy on Citizens and Political Organizations in the American States. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2004. Demonstrates how initiatives facilitate greater citizen engagement and participation.
Internet
Colorado Secretary of State Elections Center. www.elections.colorado.gov/DDefault.aspx?tid= 175. Although much of the discussion of the initiative process focuses on the California examplebecause California is the state with the largest population and the largest economy, events in California attract a lot of attentionbut direct democracy is used, and used frequently, in several states. At this Web site, for comparison, is how the state of Colorado handles the initiative and referendum. Initiative & Referendum Institute at the University of Southern California. www.iandrinstitute .org/. This is one of the longest lived and most comprehensive nonprot organizations devoted to an understanding of the initiative process. Its president is John Matsusaka, a distinguished scholar of direct democracy. The Web site contains many links to the practice in each state and to publications by members of the institute. This is probably the best single source on direct democracy available on the Internet. Initiative, Referendum, and Recall (National Conference of State Legislatures). www.ncsl.org/ programs/legismgt/elect/initiat.htm. This Web site contains a series of studies of states practice of direct democracy; it also contains the Initiative & Referendum Task Force report, which is a critical review of direct democracy in practice. This site is a little more legalistic than the Web site of the Initiative and Referendum Institute. Initiatives (California Secretary of State). www.sos.ca.gov/elections/elections_initiatives.htm and www.sos.ca.gov/elections/elections_j.htm. These Web pages about initiatives are an exhaustive look at the practice of direct democracy in California, including a detailed look at how to qualify an initiative as well as vote totals. The Web site also offers updates on current proposals and texts of actual propositions as well as access to the entire history of ballot pamphlets in the state via the California Ballot Propositions database. It gives a real-world look at how to actually go about proposing a ballot initiative.

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A Custom Book Compiled by

1. INTEREST GROUPS IN THE STATES

2. THE INITIATIVE PROCESS

INTEREST GROUPS IN THE STATES

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Interest Groups in the States

anthony j. nownes, clive s. thomas, and ronald j. hrebenar

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Interest Groups in the States

the basics: terms and concep ts

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Interest Groups in the States

variations in state interest group systems

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Interest Groups in the States

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Interest Groups in the States

lobbying and lobbyists in the states

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Interest Groups in the States

(table continues on next page)

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Interest Groups in the States

Interest Groups in the States

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Interest Groups in the States

Interest Groups in the States

interest group p ower in the states

Interest Groups in the States

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Second level of effectiveness 10 12 11 4 7 1 3 5 2 6 12 7 11

Interest Groups in the States

Interest Groups in the States

Dominant (4) Alabama Florida +/ Hawaii + Nevada

concerns and problems: regul ation of interest groups in the states

Interest Groups in the States

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Interest Groups in the States

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THE INITIATIVE PROCESS

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The Initiative Process

origins of initiatives in the united states

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The Initiative Process

a wide variet y of initiative systems

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initiatives as a form of direct demo cracy

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The Initiative Process