The Influence Of Federalism: Direct Democracy

POSC 100 American Government

Fall Semester 2015

Dr. Martinez

Syphong Ha 014343145

Midterm – Essay

September 24, 2015

How does federalism assist direct democracy? Identify three ways it does.

Federalism and democracy are two things that seem to come hand in hand in American society. Federalism is the division or sharing of government power on the national and state levels, and direct democracy is a government structure in which people directly vote for what policies, leaders, etc. they want, thus giving the power to the people under that democracy; to put it simply, the government under democracy is the people. Federalism is one of the key aspect of the United States government that helps direct democracy for it allows people to participate in both levels of government: the national level and the state level; this, thus, grants people more opportunities to participate in government using direct democracy. This can be seen in the House of Representatives, the initiative, and the referendum. On the national level, people do not directly vote for the

This process is found in California, which is extremely majoritarian meaning that the state relies heavily on direct democracy. The initiatives show direct democracy because after getting the signatures of a certain percentage of the voters who participated in the last election gubernatorial election, the proposed statute or constitutional amendment appears on the ballot at the next general election for the citizens to vote on. Federalism allows this form of direct democracy to work because on the national level the legislative branch is the one that votes to see if a bill becomes a law; however, because of federalism, on the state level these proposed statutes and constitutional amendments can be voted on by the people and thus become law or be included on the state’s