Direct democracy and constitutional change: institutional learning from state laboratories in the USA

摘要

Although the federal constitutional amendment procedure in Article V of the U.S. Constitution has not been altered since its adoption 226 years ago, constitutional tradition in the 50 states has substantially evolved. For instance, popular referenda were unknown in 1787, but are now ubiquitous in state constitutionalism. Over time, a strong tradition of direct democracy and majoritarian voting rules has emerged in almost all states. Nevertheless, scholars have often neglected the rich source of state experiments with amendment procedures in the U.S. and usually only refer to Switzerland as the prime example of direct democracy and (constitutional) referenda.