National Initiative for Democracy

Founders	Mike Gravel
Type	Public
Headquarters	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Staff	Mike Gravel (past) Tom Lombardi (present)
Area served	United States of America
Focus	A government that allows the people to work in partnership with elected officials.
Owner	Tom Lombardi
Website	NationalInitiative.us

A national initiative refers to proposals within the United States to allow for ballot initiatives at the federal level. Currently, this is being proposed by Mike Gravel, a former U.S. Senator, and Ralph Nader, author and perennial independent candidate for President of the United States.

Contents 1 National Initiative for Democracy (USA) 1.1 Background 1.2 Summary of the proposal 1.3 History 2 In popular culture 3 Mike Gravel presidential campaign for 2008 4 References 5 External links 5.1 Links to The National Initiative 5.2 Independent analysis and references 5.3 Foreign equivalent efforts

[edit] National Initiative for Democracy (USA)

The National Initiative for Democracy is an effort by The Democracy Foundation, a non-profit non-governmental organization, to create an initiative process at the federal level and in every other jurisdiction of government within the United States. Initiatives, also known as ballot initiatives allow citizens to propose, alter, or nullify laws in conjunction with traditional legislative bodies.

By 2007, 24 US states had an initiative process in place at the state level. The proposed National Initiative process would be similar to those which are already in place at the state level although differing in these significant ways:

1. An independent Electoral Trust would supervise over ballot initiatives.
2. The Electoral Trust would be responsible for helping citizens draft legislation, managing the process of the initiatives from start to end, distributing information on proposed measures via any effective means.
3. Only citizens, not corporate entities, would be allowed to sponsor or spend money for or against initiatives.
4. Before being put to a national vote, an initiative would need to be qualified in one of 3 ways: by a public opinion poll, by petition, or by the Electoral Trust's direct approval.
5. After an initiative is qualified, before it is voted on publicly, there is an open deliberative process.
6. Congress is allowed, but not required, to give a non-binding advisory opinion on whether the initiative is a good idea or not.
7. The Electoral Trust will take advantage of contemporary technology in developing procedures for voting and validating votes.
8. An initiative which modifies the constitution or a charter would be enacted by affirmative vote of half the registered voters in two successive elections separated by 6 months to 1 year. Half of the electorate, not merely half the people who care to vote, must vote yes twice in order to change a constitution or a charter.
9. An initiative that enacts, modifies or repeals statute law assumes the force of law when approved by more than half the voters participating in an election. Elections which deal with statute laws are passed by popular vote, which means by at least half the people who turned out to vote.

[edit] Background

The Democracy Foundation and the Philadelphia II Corporation are non-profit organizations established by former United States Senator Mike Gravel (Democratic Party, Alaska, 1969-1981). These organizations were established in conjunction to promote direct democracy through the enactment of a Constitutional amendment and a related Federal statute. If enacted, the amendment would both assert and codify the peoples' right to make laws, and outline the structure of the Electoral Trust. The "Democracy Act" or federal statute would outline the details with which the constitutional amendment would be implemented.

The Democracy Foundation is the sponsor of the Democracy Amendment and the Democracy Act. It is also responsible for fundraising and educational efforts. The Philadelphia II Corporation was established separately to administer the national vote which the organization hopes to use to enact the proposed legislation through the arguably tendentious and heretofore unused method of 'direct decree by the People'.

Direct Decree
The process of direct decree is the legal basis proposed by The Democracy Foundation with which it hopes to sustain its proposed enactments. Direct decree is premised with the fact that 'people's sovereignty' implemented the US political system by direct decree in the US Constitution. It cites that document's opening clause, "We the people" as evidence of same sovereignty premise. By proposed logical extension, having legally created the government of the United States the people may alter it at any time in similar fashion.

The concept of direct decree further posits that although the authority of the United States Congress is limited by the Constitution, the authority of the People is inherently sovereign and above the authority of the state. By such a theory any measure voted upon and approved by the popular majority of the people is posited to be legally binding and authoritative over all other law.

[edit] Summary of the proposal

The National Initiative for Democracy is a proposed Amendment to the US Constitution which recognizes the people's right to make laws and an accompanying Federal Law that spells out the procedures for the people to develop and vote on laws. This proposed law making is additional to those means existing and established through the institutions of representative government (ie. Congress and the President).^[1]

If enacted, the proposed Amendment and the proposed Act, a Federal Statute will become law.

The proposed amendment to the Constitution:

1. asserts the legislative powers of the people to make laws
2. allows the people to amend the constitution by holding two successive elections, more than six months but less than one year apart
3. legitimizes the national election conducted by Philadelphia II, a non-profit IRS 501 C (4) corporation, to enact the Democracy Amendment and the Democracy Act (see below),
4. creates The Electoral Trust to administer the procedures established by the Democracy Amendment and the Democracy Act,
5. outlaws the use of funds not from natural persons in initiative elections under this article, and
6. outlaws non-natural persons from sponsoring initiatives under this article.

The proposed Federal Statute:

1. sets out deliberative procedures to be used by citizens to create laws by initiative,
2. describes the responsibilities of The Electoral Trust to administer these procedures on behalf of the people,
3. appropriates the funds from The Treasury for The Electoral Trust, and
4. defines the threshold of affirmative votes needed to enact this legislation (see below).

This legislation considers itself to be enacted when it has received a number of affirmative votes greater than half the total number of votes cast in the presidential election occurring immediately prior to its certification. The United States Constitution (via Article VII) also self-enacted.

This is neither a government held nor a government sanctioned election. As of this writing, there is currently no official method laid out in the United States Constitution for the people to hold such an election. However, the authority for effecting such a constitutional reform is proposed to derive from:

• the people's sovereignty as the creators of the United States Constitution,
• the First Amendment's right for the people to petition the government for redress, and
• Article VII of the US Constitution.

[edit] History

Although seeking broad public support, the National Initiative for Democracy has been largely spearheaded by the work of Mike Gravel. As well as establishing both The Democracy Foundation and the Philadelphia II corporation, he also authored the bulk of the draft text of the Amendment and Act. Both were vetted publicly at the Democracy Symposium held February 16-18, 2002 in Williamsburg, Virginia.

The effort to enact a national ballot initiate through popular vote is but one in a series of efforts by Mr Gravel toward the same purpose including formal efforts at promulgating constitution amendments in his former capacity as a Senator. Former presidential candidate Ralph Nader supports the initiative.

[edit] In popular culture

A proposal for a national initiative is featured as part of the plot in the 1977 film Billy Jack Goes to Washington, the fourth and last of the Billy Jack series. In the film, Billy Jack is appointed a United States Senator. Seeking to keep him out of the Senate on a day when a controversial energy bill is being voted on, another Senator suggests he meet with a grassroots group that day instead. The group is working to pass a national initiative and Billy Jack becomes convinced of their cause. Billy Jack ends up filibustering in the Senate giving a long speech supporting a national initiative.

[edit] Mike Gravel presidential campaign for 2008

The former United States Senator Mike Gravel in 2006 declared his candidacy for the 2008 Democratic nomination for President of the United States motivated primarily by his ardent support for direct democracy and the National Initiative proposal with which he is closely associated.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

[edit] Links to The National Initiative

• The Democracy Foundation's National Initiative web site
• Philadelphia 2 website which is conducting the actual vote
• Text of the proposed Amendment
• Text of the proposed Act
• Ralph Nader in Support of the NI4d
• US People's Virtual Party in Support of the NI4d

[edit] Independent analysis and references

• Direct Democracy and Civic Maturation by Alan Hirsch, Hasting Constitutional Law Review Volume 29, Number 2, Winter 2001
  • full text available here with permission from Hasting's
• This page (on the Democracy Foundations's web site) contains a list of papers presented at The Democracy Symposium on February 16, 2002 in Williamsburg, VA, USA
• The Initiative and Referendum Almanac: A Comprehensive Reference Guide to the Initiative and Referendum Process by M. Dane Waters (need page reference)
• Initiative & Referendum Institute at the University of Southern California references The National Initiative
• Analysis of the Amendment and Act done by David Parrish (now deceased). This document remains part of The Democracy Foundation's archives.

[edit] Foreign equivalent efforts

• European Citizen Initiatives