Thinking about it more, I think the laundry room might point to why this political system works in Switzerland and the loosely similar attempts at direct democracy in America arguably don’t.
So, for context, I grew up in Florida, and now split my time between Florida and California, technically residing in Florida but spending a lot of my time in California. Both places have some version of direct democracy. In Florida there’s a system of ballot measures that permits amendments to the state constitution by vote, but with some limitations (the wording gets reviewed and sometimes amendments get signatures to show up on the ballot but are worded in ways that courts rule are invalid, some kinds of changes are not allowed, etc.). In California there’s a more general system for referendums. Since I only vote in Florida I know that better, but I live with the consequences in California so I see that, too.
In both places the system is a mess. In California the deleterious effects of various propositions is well documented, so I won’t say much about it. In Florida, it’s similarly weird, and constantly puts the state in a position where it’s forced to violate the constitution. A great example of this is the 2002 class size amendment that put constitutional limits on how many students could be in a class, but provided no mechanism for funding this change, leaving that up to the legislature. Unsurprisingly, not enough money was coughed up at the state level, leaving school districts in a tough spot. The result was things like school districts strategically choosing to violate the constitution and pay fines because it was cheaper than complying with the law.
But that’s all just context, I’m really here to talk about laundry.
So, in American culture, I feel relatively safe in claiming that a supermajority of Americans would be put off at the idea that they would have to submit to communal authority of their fellow apartment dwellers. There’s something in the American ethos about people letting other people alone, especially if they are equals. The only person who can tell us what to do is someone we recognize as an authority.
Weirdly, though, Americans are pretty happy to submit to people they recognize as authorities. Like, they might grumble a bit about it, but current protests aside, people aren’t generally out in the streets over being asked to do things. They might make a lot of noise about it, but in the end they will either just do it or shut up about it and silently break the rules. Like, if my neighbors asked me to change how I did laundry, I’d likely not want to hear it. But if the landlord told me the rules, I’d at least say “okay, he has the right to make the rules”, and then either follow them or not but at least I would accept he was a valid person to tell me what to do, whereas I wouldn’t think my neighbor had any right to say anything.
And this difference in culture bubbles up. So it feels like if my fellow Americans say they want policy X or Y, that’s just their opinion. But if our elected officials say this is policy X or Y, well that’s how it us. Americans expect a hierarchical structure both in public and private spheres, and don’t want to listen to people who aren’t their superior. Thus, having put on my amateur sociologist hat, I’m lead to believe that direct democracy wouldn’t work in America without substantial cultural changes towards greater egalitarianism, noting that America seems to be a great example that you can be pro-freedom and not pro-equality.
I have no data to support the following, this is purely my point of view versus yours. I would be really curious about seeing the popularity of ballot initiatives among citizens in different US states, and how they would react if there was a possibility to withdraw this civic right. I believe you are projecting your own point of view here, go in California, in Oregon, in N&S Dakota, in Washington, in Colorado, in Maine and Massachusetts, and you may find that most people have a higher trust in the process of ballot initiatives than in their legislatures.
In Switzerland there’s a lot of discussion about changing this or that part of the political system, but I’ve never seen someone advocating for getting rid of referenda. There’s something about the concept that people tend to like, irrespective of whether it works well or not.
Thinking about it more, I think the laundry room might point to why this political system works in Switzerland and the loosely similar attempts at direct democracy in America arguably don’t.
So, for context, I grew up in Florida, and now split my time between Florida and California, technically residing in Florida but spending a lot of my time in California. Both places have some version of direct democracy. In Florida there’s a system of ballot measures that permits amendments to the state constitution by vote, but with some limitations (the wording gets reviewed and sometimes amendments get signatures to show up on the ballot but are worded in ways that courts rule are invalid, some kinds of changes are not allowed, etc.). In California there’s a more general system for referendums. Since I only vote in Florida I know that better, but I live with the consequences in California so I see that, too.
In both places the system is a mess. In California the deleterious effects of various propositions is well documented, so I won’t say much about it. In Florida, it’s similarly weird, and constantly puts the state in a position where it’s forced to violate the constitution. A great example of this is the 2002 class size amendment that put constitutional limits on how many students could be in a class, but provided no mechanism for funding this change, leaving that up to the legislature. Unsurprisingly, not enough money was coughed up at the state level, leaving school districts in a tough spot. The result was things like school districts strategically choosing to violate the constitution and pay fines because it was cheaper than complying with the law.
But that’s all just context, I’m really here to talk about laundry.
So, in American culture, I feel relatively safe in claiming that a supermajority of Americans would be put off at the idea that they would have to submit to communal authority of their fellow apartment dwellers. There’s something in the American ethos about people letting other people alone, especially if they are equals. The only person who can tell us what to do is someone we recognize as an authority.
Weirdly, though, Americans are pretty happy to submit to people they recognize as authorities. Like, they might grumble a bit about it, but current protests aside, people aren’t generally out in the streets over being asked to do things. They might make a lot of noise about it, but in the end they will either just do it or shut up about it and silently break the rules. Like, if my neighbors asked me to change how I did laundry, I’d likely not want to hear it. But if the landlord told me the rules, I’d at least say “okay, he has the right to make the rules”, and then either follow them or not but at least I would accept he was a valid person to tell me what to do, whereas I wouldn’t think my neighbor had any right to say anything.
And this difference in culture bubbles up. So it feels like if my fellow Americans say they want policy X or Y, that’s just their opinion. But if our elected officials say this is policy X or Y, well that’s how it us. Americans expect a hierarchical structure both in public and private spheres, and don’t want to listen to people who aren’t their superior. Thus, having put on my amateur sociologist hat, I’m lead to believe that direct democracy wouldn’t work in America without substantial cultural changes towards greater egalitarianism, noting that America seems to be a great example that you can be pro-freedom and not pro-equality.
I have no data to support the following, this is purely my point of view versus yours. I would be really curious about seeing the popularity of ballot initiatives among citizens in different US states, and how they would react if there was a possibility to withdraw this civic right. I believe you are projecting your own point of view here, go in California, in Oregon, in N&S Dakota, in Washington, in Colorado, in Maine and Massachusetts, and you may find that most people have a higher trust in the process of ballot initiatives than in their legislatures.
In Switzerland there’s a lot of discussion about changing this or that part of the political system, but I’ve never seen someone advocating for getting rid of referenda. There’s something about the concept that people tend to like, irrespective of whether it works well or not.