Articles of potential interest.....

Advocacy Organizations in the U.S. Political Process
Kenneth T. Andrews and Bob Edwards
Annual Review of Sociology
Vol. 30: 479-506 (Volume publication date August 2004)

Sources of Variation in the Frequency of Statewide Initiatives: The Role of Interest Group Populations
Frederick J. Boehmke
Political Research Quarterly, Vol. 58, No. 4. (Dec., 2005), pp. 565-575.
Boehmke finds that states with ballot initiatives have more interest groups. In particular, if there are a lot of interest groups that represent interest groups, there are less inititiaves passed, whereas interest groups that represent citizens without economic interests utilize the initiatve process more often.

The Effect of Direct Democracy on the Size and Diversity of State Interest Group Populations
Frederick J. Boehmke
The Journal of Politics, Vol. 64, No. 3. (Aug., 2002), pp. 827-844.
Boehmke proves that Interest groups that represent citizens as opposed to economic interests are more likely to have success with their ballot intitiatives.



Development Ballot Measures, Interest Group Endorsements, and the Political Geography of Growth Preferences
Elisabeth R. Gerber; Justin H. Phillips
Gerber finds that local development decisions made by voters appear to be strongly influenced by interest group participation as opposed to other practicalites or implications of the proposed policy,


Legislatures, Initiatives, and Representation: The Effects of State Legislative Institutions on Policy
Elisabeth R. Gerber
Political Research Quarterly, Vol. 49, No. 2. (Jun., 1996), pp. 263-286.
Gerber discovers that the type of policies passed on the state level vary with regard to which intsitution was used to create them, i.e. the legislature or the ballot initiative.


The Initiative: A Comparative State Analysis and Reassessment of a Western Phenomenon
Charles M. Price
The Western Political Quarterly, Vol. 28, No. 2. (Jun., 1975), pp. 243-262.
Price studies how initiaves proivde a needed alternative to the state policy making process.

The California Initiative Process: Background and Perspective
J. Fred Silva
November 2000, 42 pp.
Resource Material for The Speaker's Commission on The California Initiative Process, November 2000.
History of initiatives in California as well as suggested reforms.


Interest Group Influence in the California Initiative Process
Elisabeth R. Gerber
November 1998, 34 pp.
According to Gerber, citizen-based interest groups are more adept at acheiving their goals through the ballot intitiate process and economic interest groups are more successful when they use their resources to fight initiative proposed by citizen interest groups.

PPIC Statewide Survey: Special Survey on Californians and the Initiative Process, October 2005
Mark Baldassare
October 2005, 34 pp.
Baldassare uses a survey to assess the dominant policy issues in California and how the institution of ballot intiatives affects policy and voter concern over these issues.

Just How Pluralist Is Direct Democracy? The Structure of Interest Group Participation in Ballot Proposition Elections
Shaun Bowler & Robert Hanneman
Political Research Quarterly, Vol. 59, No. 4, 557-568 (2006)
Bowler and Hanneman look at the donors behind initiative campaigns and describe the campaign for an inititave in terms of the coalitions formed bewteen groups and the role played by large donors as well as powerful groups such as the teacher's unions and constuction industry.