|
The USC-Caltech Center for the Study of Law and Politics (CSLP) is a unique network of inter-connected scholars, drawn from diverse disciplines such as law, political science, economics, public administration, psychology, and communications. Since its creation in 2000, the Center's scholars have combined law and the social sciences to study voters, democratic institutions, the political process and the law. In January 2004, the Initiative and Referendum Institute (IRI), the nation's most prominent educational and research organization focused on direct democracy, moved to USC and joined the CSLP. Together, these two institutions form the leading center in the United States to study the tools of popular government: initiative, referendum and recall. In addition to maintaining the award-winning Ballotwatch service with current and historical data on initiatives and referendums in the U.S., the IRI and CSLP plan projects to study the influence of direct democracy on local governments, particularly urban centers like Los Angeles, and the effects of new information technologies on the process.
The CSLP and IRI along with the Lusk Center for Real Estate at USC are developing a database and a body of scholarly work
that will help policy makers, citizens, and scholars better understand the use and consequences of initiatives and referendums in cities and counties across the nation. The Local Governance and Direct Democracy Project, funded with a generous grant from the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation, will focus on I&R at the local level. Initially gathering data from localities in Southern California, where direct democracy first took root at a local level, and then from locations nationwide, this project has produced and will continue producing an extensive online database on the characteristics and outcomes of local initiatives and referendums.
|
