Book Reviews and Notices : The Initiative and Referendum in California. By WINSTON W. CROUCH. (Los Angeles: The Haynes Foundation. 1950. Pp. 56. 50c.)
| Published date | 01 March 1951 |
| DOI | 10.1177/106591295100400156 |
| Date | 01 March 1951 |
| Author | Vincent Ostrom |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
178
American
State
and
Local
Government.
By
CLYDE
F.
SNIDER.
(New
York:
Appleton-Century-Crofts,
Inc.
Pp.
xiv,
639.
$5.00.)
Without
meaning
to
be
contemptuous
of
a
volume
on
which
an
able
scholar
has
devoted
much
time,
the
reviewer
feels
that
this
is
another
example
of
a
book
which
should
not
have
been
written.
It
is
a
very
long,
and
a
very
dull,
review
of
literature
regarding
state
and
local
government.
It
undoubtedly
contains
information
of
substantial
value;
nevertheless,
a
lengthy
volume
containing
such
information,
with
no
particular
thesis
to
support
and
with
no
particular
skeleton
except
that
of
a
relationship
to
state
and
local
government,
makes
extremely
tedious
reading.
The
basic
issues
on
the
relationships
between
federal
and
state
gov.
ernment
are
almost
entirely
ignored.
Not
much
is
said
about
the
expansion
of
national
power.
No
danger
is
seen
in
the
development
of
national-local
relationships.
The
pros
and
cons
of
unicameralism
rate
more
discussion
than
do
the
far
more
important
problems
of
f ederal-state
relations.
Political
science
is
not
going
to
move
ahead
so
long
as
able
writers
put
their
time
into
the
making
of
dull
volumes
like
this.
Claremont
Men’s
College.
GEORGE
C.
S.
BENSON.
The
Initiative
and
Referendum
in
California.
By
WINSTON
W.
CROUCH.
(Los
Angeles:
The
Haynes
Foundation.
1950.
Pp.
56.
50c.)
In
this
booklet,
Dr.
Crouch
gives
a
completely
revised
and
expanded
account
of
his
earlier
studies
of
direct
legislation
in
California.
The
origin
and
kind
of
direct
legislation
in
California,
the
operation
of
the
initiative
and
referendum,
the
organization
and
conduct
of
the
election
campaigns
for
ballot
measures,
and
the
climate
of
opinion
regarding
direct
legislation
are
capably
presented
to
give
the
reader
an
understanding
of
the
role
that
initiative
and
referendum
have
assumed
in
the
political
and
legislative
processes
of
the
state
of
California.
The
initiative
made
possible
a
number
of
significant
voter
contribu,
tions
to
California
state
goverment
including
the
executive
budget,
a
comprehensive
state
civil
service
system,
the
integration
of
local
law
en,
forcement
and
prosecution
through
the
state’s
Attorney
General,
improve,
ment
in
judicial
administration,
greater
liberality
in
the
amount
of
state
aid
for
schools,
the
permanent
registration
law,
and
anti-usury
legislation.
While
the
panacea
promoters
have
presented
a
number
of
pension
plans
and
utopias
as
initiative
proposals,
they
have
been
uniformly
defeated
at
the
polls,
except
for
the
short-lived
success
of
the
McLain
pension
plan.
&dquo;With
few
exceptions,&dquo;
Dr.
Crouch
observes,
&dquo;the
majority
of
California
voters
have
followed
a
moderate
or
slightly
conservative
pattern
in
their
voting
upon
direct
legislative
matters.&dquo;
To continue reading
Request your trial