California's democratic dilemma

When three of the state's leading academic centers for governmental studies host a conference in Sacramento today on how to reform California's Constitution, one of the questions they will ask is: What's to be learned from the sweeping reform agenda enacted in 1911 by Gov. Hiram Johnson and his Progressive legislative majorities? Those changes included not only women's suffrage, the direct election of U.S. senators, the recall, and a minimum wage for women and children, but an aspect of our public life that many see at the root of our current problems: the initiative.

Tim Rutten

October 14, 2009