Popular initiative


A popular initiative, or people's initiative is a form of direct democracy by which a petition meeting certain hurdles can force a legal procedure on a proposition.
In direct initiative, the proposition is put directly to a plebiscite or referendum, also called a popular initiated referendum or citizen-initiated referendum.
In an indirect initiative, the proposed measure is first referred to the legislature, and then if the proposed law is rejected by the legislature, the government may be forced to put the proposition to a referendum. The proposition may be on federal level law, statute, constitutional amendment, charter amendment, local ordinance, obligate the executive or legislature to consider the subject by submitting it to the order of the day. In contrast, a popular referendum that allows voters only to repeal existing legislation.
The hurdles the petition has to meet vary between countries, typically a certain number of signatures by registered voters, to prevent a flood of frivolous measures on the ballot. It has been argued that a signature hurdle does not always determine popular support since the signature hurdle can be achieved through hiring a professional company to gather signatures. Instead of a signature hurdle a reliable opinion poll as hurdle has been proposed.
The success of a popular initiative depends on the exact wording.

By type

Direct initiative

A direct initiative places an initiative measure directly on the ballot for voters to pass or reject. The measure is not submitted to the legislature for support first.

Indirect initiative

An indirect initiative is voted on by a legislature after sufficient signatures are collected from the voting population. In most areas the measure is submitted to a subsequent popular vote only if amended by the legislature.

Agenda setting initiative

An agenda setting initiative is a measure submitted by petition to a legislature for consideration. The legislature may choose to approve or reject the proposal without a public vote. This form or initiative is more common than a legally binding direct or indirect initiative.

By country

Americas

Brazil

In Brazil, a popular law initiative requires two conditions be met before it is sent to the National Congress: signatures from at least 1% of national registered voters and at least 0.3% of the people allowed to vote from each of at least five of the 27 federal unities. If both conditions are met, Congress is obliged to discuss and vote on holding the initiative.

Canada

; British Columbia
The Canadian province of British Columbia has a citizen initiative law known as the Recall and Initiative Act. The original proposal was put to voters in a referendum held in October 1991 and was supported by over 83% of voters. It was subsequently put into force by the incoming NDP government. Since it came into force in 1995, at least 14 attempts have been made to force the government to either adopt a law or to hold a referendum on the question, but only one has succeeded. Only one secured the required signatures of 10% of registered voters in each riding throughout British Columbia. Due to this achievement the government held the first referendum under this legislation, in September 2011 on the subject of repealing the Harmonized Sales Tax. Details of its use in BC are available on the Elections BC website.

United States

The United States has no initiative process at the national level, but the initiative is in use at the level of state government in 24 states and the District of Columbia, and is also in common use at the local government level.
Article I, Section I of the United States Constitution vests "all legislative powers herein granted" to the Congress of the United States. Establishing a national initiative procedure would likely require an amendment to the Constitution, which would under Article V require two-thirds of both houses of Congress or the application of two-thirds of the state legislatures to propose, and three-fourths of all state legislatures to ratify. The Constitution itself, pursuant to Article VII, was ratified by state conventions rather than by a referendum.
Several proposals have been made to institute a national referendum. The Ludlow Amendment, introduced several times to the House of Representatives by Louis Ludlow of Indiana between 1935 and 1940, proposed an amendment to the Constitution that would require a national referendum to declare war except in the case of invasion or attack. The amendment came closest to overcoming a discharge petition on January 10, 1938, when it was defeated in the House by a vote of 209 to 188, short of the two-thirds vote required for its passage.
Unsuccessful attempts to get initiatives have nevertheless occurred, but since the proposals were bills, not constitutional amendments, no initiative could probably have lawfully been voted on notwithstanding the bills' passage. The first attempt to get national ballot initiatives occurred in 1907 when House Joint Resolution 44 was introduced by Rep. Elmer Fulton of Oklahoma; the proposal was never put to a vote. In 1977, both the Abourezk-Hatfield National Voter Initiative and the Jagt Resolutions never got out of committee. Senator Mike Gravel was part of that effort.
The modern system of initiatives and referendums in the United States originated in the state of South Dakota, which adopted initiatives and referendums in 1898 by a popular vote of 23,816 to 16,483. Oregon was the second state to adopt and did so in 1902, when the Oregon Legislative Assembly adopted it by an overwhelming majority. The "Oregon System", as it was at first known, subsequently spread to many other states, and became one of the signature reforms of the Progressive Era. Almost every state currently in the union utilizes some sort of State Question or Initiative. A contemporary issue that is commonly decided through this method is the legalization of marijuana.

Uruguay

In Uruguay, through the "popular initiative", the electorate can present a bill to the General Assembly, a constitutional reform bill to be submitted to a referendum, and a bill to the departmental governments.
Under Article 79 of the Constitution of the Republic, with the support of 25% of those registered to vote, a bill can be submitted to the General Assembly. For constitutional amendments, Article 331 establishes that with the signature of 10% of citizens registered in the National Civil Registry, a reform bill can be submitted to the president of the General Assembly and submitted to a vote in the following election in a nationwide referendum.
In addition, at the departmental level, under Article 305, 15% of registered residents in a jurisdiction determined by law have the right of initiative before the departmental governing bodies.

Asia

Philippines

People's initiative to propose amendments to the constitution is enshrined in the 1987 Philippine Constitution under Article XVII Section 2, which states:
This provision is further protected by Republic Act 6735 or The Initiative and Referendum Act. The law defines initiative as:
  1. A petition to propose amendments to the constitution.
  2. A petition to propose enactment of national legislation.
  3. A petition to propose enactment of local resolution or ordinance on regional, provincial, city, municipal, or barangay level.
The law also provides indirect initiative defining the exercise of people's initiative through a proposition sent to congress or local legislative body for action.

Europe

European Union

The rejected Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe included a limited indirect initiative right. The proposal of introducing the European Citizens' Initiative was that 1,000,000 citizens, from minimal numbers of different member states, could invite the executive body of the European Union, the European Commission, to consider any proposal "on matters where citizens consider that a legal act of the Union is required for the purpose of implementing the Constitution." The precise mechanism had not been agreed upon. Critics underlined the weakness of this right of initiative, which did not ultimately entail any vote or referendum.
A similar scheme under the same name, European Citizens' Initiative, has been put forward in the now ratified European Lisbon Treaty, enabling a limited indirect initiative right. It follows very similar rules to the ones outlined in the European Constitution, requiring the signatures of 1,000 000 European Nationals. These citizens would thereby obtain the same right to request the Commission to submit a legislative proposal as the Council has had since the establishment of the European Communities in 1957. This, however, does require that the signatures come from a "significant number" of Member States. It is suggested that this significant number will need to be around a quarter of member states, with at least 1/500 of the citizens in those member states supporting the initiative. With the variety of languages within the European Union, this creates a significant hurdle for people to navigate. The treaty also makes it clear that right of initiative should not be confused with the right to petition, particularly since a petition is directed to Parliament while a citizens' initiative is directed to the Commission; whereas a petition is a method of remonstrance, usually focussing on perceived infringements of European Law, an initiative is a grassroots proposal for new legislation. In 2013 the subjects of ongoing open initiatives of the European Citizens' Initiative are e.g. about "water and sanitation as a human right", "30 km/h - making the streets liveable!", "Unconditional Basic Income", or to "End Ecocide in Europe".
It remains to be seen if the ECI evolves into a full initiative or remains in its present state of a de facto petition.