OpenGov - Open Government Brainstorm

I agree that we need direct public involvement in decision making. Some people are certain to complain about ballot initiatives. They force citizens to participate and to know what they are voting on, and sometimes certain groups lose, that is the nature of democracy. Nobody said democracy should be easy. The majority of people in California have spoken, that's democracy. Through ballot initiatives the people have a means by which to correct their mistake if they want to.

I urge every reader to check out www.vote.org. We the people have a great deal of power available to us if we're willing to take it.

Peg.Griffin - this would not be the same system as California. It includes reforms like a deliberative committee picked by the same methods as a jury, a kind of supermajority for constitutional amendments (would have prevented prop 8, and it is the same kind currently in use in Nevada), and other things. This would be a great opportunity to reform the broken California system, in fact.

This sounds like something worth exploring, but one needs to be extremely careful to avoid the problems happening in California currently. Perhaps something along the lines of a "National Ballot Poll" to assess public interest. Or, proposals that pass are then forced to go before congress as a bill. This would allow congressional oversight (not always great, but a needed layer for something like this) and since congressmen and women would know how their constitutes voted it would give incentive to enact the legislation.

mrjstarr - your ideas are very similar to what is in the National Initiative for Democracy, the proposal that I linked to ( http://www.ni4d.org ). One way to qualify for the ballot is through opinion poll and it creates unique citizen juries that review each law and have testimony and input from the general public for each initiative before it even reaches the ballot.

We do this by calling and signing petitions to our representatives. They ignore us.

We have to get rid of them with a recall or wait for the next election.

We need more representatives in Congress since one represents 650,000 people. This is too large a number to be democratic. The big states lack power.

Ideally, public policy should match the aggregate desire of a politically savvy public. Naturally, public opinion changes and policy lags behind. Initiative permits public policy to catch up with public opinion (as measured by polls) more quickly than in a representative system of government.

Since the public could overturn unpopular policy, representative lawmakers will be more careful about which proposals they advocate. Policy decisions would have greater legitimacy. More people would be involved in setting public policy. Citizens will be educated about the challenges of governance and a greater diversity of ideas would be opened to consideration, fostering more creative solutions to the problems we face. By acting directly as legislators, We, the People will assume the responsibility and accountability for our self-governance. We will no longer have the need or right to blame the failure of public policy on others.

Foundations of Public Administration (PA6610) RA

The American people should be involved in the process of creating and changing public policy. The legislators and politicians are many times driven by their own personal interests when trying to push legislation and policies through. The American people are not as influenced by political power or money as the politicians are, therefore, the public brings a different perspective to the issues of public policy making. The people are going to want to develop and change policy that will work better for the public and not politicians.

The American people also introduce a very valuable set of perspectives based on their diversity and experiences. Having the citizens express interests and opinions in policies that are presented would be beneficial to the policy makers. The legislators would be in touch with what the public needs and wants, be more aware of the challenges that the people face on a daily basis, and can propose policy that has been reviewed and commented on by the American people.

I think it is very important for the American people to be involved in their nation’s political process. Even though all opinions won't be considered, this type of open dialogue will be extremely beneficial for all people to participate in. It will force people who want to get involved to learn about issues and become better educated about all aspects of our political process. It will also attract people who felt their opinion didn't matter to get involved. When thinking in terms of direct democracy and the foundations our nation was founded on, this type of initiative is a great step for our people, technology, as well as governmental processes.

I think the National Ballot Initiative is a great idea in theory. It would allow more participation from citizens (who know the answers to most of the problems the government currently faces) to be heard at the top levels of government. It would also allow for a clearer appropriation of tax payer money to pay for programs that we know are hurting (Education, Health Care, etc) and shift money from programs that are not working. I think it would encourage more citizens to get involved in the process of creating policies that just might have a relatively high change of making it through congress. The ideas would be creative, effective and not coerced by lobbyist or party constituents. I think this would be a great initiative to finally allow for the principle theory of "Government for the People, by the People" to be applied.

PA 6610 "Foundations of Public Administration" WRH

If this tool is implemented we may be able turn our country is the right direction. This may be an opportunity to return government “to the people”. I believe enough of us are interested in finding a way to make thing better, we can make this work, with a little participation! Right now, we are at the mercy of Congress and lobbyists selling out to the highest bidder! Our only option is to remove officials not looking out for our interest out of office. I think the National Ballot Initiative makes the concerns of the public known to congress and the executive branch. We would have the ability to intervene (possibly stop) things like bailouts (with bonuses to top management), wars, etc. We have tried most of everything else, why not the National Ballot Initiative?

PA 6610 "Foundations of Public Administration"

I agree that the National ballot initiative would give more power to the people. I would like to think that more people would get involved and learn about the issues, but I don’t have as much faith in the general public to think that we wouldn’t vote to our own selfish agenda. Prop 8 mentioned in an earlier post did not have the expected outcome in California. Whether you are for or against gay marriage the same vote could have gone against gay rights or anyone else’s rights (gun owners, home owners, elderly, etc). While researching this topic online I came across an ad from GGS (Government Grant Solutions) that reads: “ Obamas’ Grant Program Instant Application Never Repay- Everyone Approved! www.GovernmentGrantAssistance.org “ Could you imagine this being on the ballot? Free money, never repay. It would pass easily , but I don’t think this would be a good idea without knowing where the money is coming from. The bottom line would be more say to the people, grant more power, but keep checks and balances.

The National Ballot Initiative could be advantageous.

This could be a good way to to equip our elected officials and enable the people to voice issues and offer suggestions that will bring public attention to the very issues that are a interest and concern to the people. It would also show a consensus of public opinion. PA6610CG