Democracy: How Direct? Views from the Founding Era and the Polling Era

by Abrams, Elliott; Belz, Herman; Fishkin, James S.; Ginsberg, Benjamin; Kesler, Charles R.; Page, Benjamin I.; Rosen, Gary; Tarr, G Alan; Unz, Ron K.; Waters, M Dane

• ISBN13: 9780742523197
• ISBN10: 0742523195
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-08-15
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Summary

For more than two hundred years Americans have been debating how direct a democracy they want. Many hold that representative government too seldom reflects the people's real views, while others counter that direct popular voting will lead to excesses of passion and deficits of deliberation. In Democracy: How Direct? Elliot Abrams brings together eminent scholars to discuss the issues surrounding the dilemma of a representative versus direct democracy.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Elliott Abrams
The Founders' Views of Direct Democracy and Representation	1	(18)
Charles R. Kesler
James Madison and the Spirit of 1787	19	(14)
Gary Rosen
Lincoln's View of Direct Democracy and Public Opinion	33	(20)
Herman Belz
Beyond Referendum Democracy: Competing Conceptions of Public Opinion	53	(14)
James S. Fishkin
Polling and the Creation of a Virtual Public	67	(20)
Benjamin Ginsberg
Response: Refined and Enlarged Public Opinion	82	(5)
Benjamin I. Page
For the People: Direct Democracy in the State Constitutional Tradition	87	(14)
G. Alan Tarr
People Power: Initiative and Referendum in the United States	101	(10)
M. Dane Waters
Why Initiatives Are Necessary: Some Tales from California	111	(8)
Ron K. Unz
Notes	119	(12)
Index of Names	131	(4)
About the Ethics and Public Policy Center	135