Ballot Initiatives: For The Best? [Cincy Enquirer]

[Bill McBlueState]

I think it's time people started thinking more broadly about the effect of ballot initiatives on democratic government. This article raises some good points. Seems like it has become popular in Ohio for corporate interests to buy their way into the state constitution.

Ballot initiatives, former Oregon Secretary of State Phil Keisling says, are "like 190-proof grain alcohol - a little goes a long way."

Next month's ballot may prove his point. The offerings on the electoral menu packing perhaps the biggest potential punch are a plan to legalize casinos in Ohio - the fifth since 1990 - and a Cincinnati charter amendment to require public approval for proposed streetcar and passenger rail lines.

The rhetoric over those issues has ignited a debate over whether ballot initiatives and referendums are emblematic of democracy at its finest - citizen power personified - or its worst, a hazardous move that hamstrings government and can trample minority rights.

Continued here: http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/AB/20091015/EDIT03/910180306/