California State Legislature

The ability of the people to adjudge laws, effectively by-passing the prerogatives of the legislature, has been cited as proof of the democratic principle and in addition as under abscissionting the strength of the legislature. It is clear that the initiative process everyplace the years has forced changes in the way the legislature performs-- proposition 13 took away the ability of the legislature (state and local) to impose property taxes, and proffer 140 imposed term limits. The fact that the people apprize be influential does not mean that the legislature is not, however.

atomic number 20 has a bicameral legislature consisting of an convention and a Senate. The Senate consists of 40 Senators elected for a maximum of two four-year terms and an Assembly of 80 members, each elected for no more than cardinal two-year terms. Since 1880, the federal census has been the basis upon which the Assembly, senatorial, and congressional districts work been apportioned. Prior to 1965, Senate districts could not be composed of more than leash counties. Assembly districts were based on population, and no county lines could be cover in the formation of either Senate or Assembly districts. For Senate districts, no county, or metropolis and county could be divided, nor could any county, or city and county, contain more than one district. In 1965 the Cal

The courtyard decided that, although that referenda did not strictly combine with the legal requirements, these defects were not sufficient to overcome the court's predilection to conduct the constitutional index number of referendum and therefore held the referendum valid (Wilson 75).

The 1971 reapportionment elevated the issue once more when bills for reapportionment were passed by the legislature and then vetoed by the governor. The California ultimate Court entered the enmity again and called for the legislature to enact valid legislative reapportionment statutes for the 1972 elections, tho by the end of 1972 the issue had not been resolved. The Supreme Court appointed Special Masters to create a plan for reapportionment and imposed this plan for the 1974 elections and for the rest of the decade.

In 1981 the legislature passed a plan and the governor signed it, but Republican members of the legislature were not happy with it and launched a referendum drive. The plead Supreme Court found flaws in the referendum, but the court also held that its own longstanding policy of liberally construing the military force of referendum should continue:

The imposition of term limits has clearly reduced the power of the legislature, though what this will mean for representative democracy in the future is still uncertain. In addition to term limits, Proposition 140 more immediately ordered a cut of nearly 40 percent in the $190 trillion legislative operating budget. This recently caused a wave of megabucks layoffs as the senate shed 200 of its nearly 1,000 employees, and the assembly dropped 440 of its lag of 1,500. Along with clerks and secretaries, some 300 policy experts were dismissed and 15 subcommittees were disbanded ("'It's a Slap of Reality'" 14).

4) to the extent that this differential influence affects legislative decision-making, public policy is also skewed in regard of narrow interests, often to the detriment of the public interest (DeBow 2).

3) semipolitical influence pu
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