Is There a Constitutional Convention in California's Future?
On February 24, hundreds of citizens interested in fixing California's broken government gathered in Sacramento at the California Constitutional Convention Summit in Sacramento, an event co-sponsored by the New America Foundation. A Constitutional Convention could work much like a Citizens Assembly, an idea long championed by New America's Political Reform Program. As New America senior research fellow Micah Weinberg suggests in his recent essay in the San Jose Mercury News: "A constitutional convention may be the order of the day — but only if , and this is the big 'if,' we have some idea of what we would actually like our government to look like when it's over." More information about the proposal for a Constitutional Convention can be found here.
Resources
New America Foundation commissioned a statewide survey in California and found that nearly 3/4 quarters of voters support the idea of a Citizens Assembly. Download the press release, poll analysis, survey questions and results in PDF format. A great resource is the Citizens Assembly Blog by New America Fellow, J.H. Snider, which covers citizens assembly developments throughout the world. The final 20-page report issued by the British Columbia's Citizens Assembly is an excellent insight into the process used by members of the Citizens Assembly and the 280-page final technical report goes into great detail about the different voting systems studied and deliberated over the 11-month long process.Citizen Assembly: An Important Vehicle for Political Reform
One means of removing partisanship and incumbent protectionism from the political reform process is known as a Citizens Assembly, which convenes a body of randomly-selected citizens empowered to formally propose electoral reforms that politicians have too strong a conflict of interest to propose themselves. A number of promising reforms which could make the American political system more representative and responsive, including non-partisan redistricting, proportional representation and public financing of campaigns, all face the same entrenched interests, including elected lawmakers, who benefit from the status quo. A Citizens Assembly is a path to progress that can circumvent these obstacles. Citizen Assemblies have produced promising results in Canada and now, with momentum growing for a Constitutional Convention in California, we may see citizen-generated political reform closer to home. You can learn more about the history and formation of the Citizens Assembly here.
Survey Shows Overwhelming Support for Citizens Assembly
Nearly 3/4 of California Voters Would Like to See Panel Created
As Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger calls for more competition in elections, a survey commissioned by the New America Foundation finds that nearly three-quarters of California voters would like to see the governor and the Legislature create a citizen’s panel to explore political reform ideas for making the state’s election process more fair and competitive. If lawmakers did not convene the panel, two-thirds said they would vote for an initiative to create one. The findings identified overwhelming demand for better elections. Read the press release, or download the poll analysis, survey questions and results in PDF format.
Read Director Steven Hill's piece in the San Francisco Chronicle's Open Forum: "The way forward for political reform."
Big Ideas for Better Governance
New America has proposed a number of electoral innovations that a Constitutional Convention or Citizens Assembly could embrace, including proportional representation elections and instant runoff voting. New America’s Political Reform Program has published several recent commentaries about IRV in the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, and Oregonian, as well as an in-depth report about how IRV can reinvigorate democracy in L.A. New America has also developed a bold proposal for electing the California Legislature through proportional representation elections.
