Democracy Forum

Citizen Initiatives: The Devil’s in the Details Host: Ann Luther, League of Women Voters of Maine, www.lwvme.org Engineer: Amy Browne Key Discussion Points: the historical origins of the initiative provisions, how initiatives actually work in Maine, our contemporary experience with them, their effect on politics and elections, the tension between direct and representative democracy, and proposals for reform, many of which are being debated in the Maine State Legislature right now. Guests: Joshua Dyck, Associate Professor of Political Science and Co-Director of the Center for Public Opinion at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. www.uml.edu/fahss/political-science/faculty/dyck-joshua.aspx Michael Franz, Professor of Government and Legal Studies at Bowdoin College and co-director of the Wesleyan Media Project. mikemfranz.com/ To learn more about this topic: – Initiatives without Engagement A Realistic Appraisal of Direct Democracy’s Secondary Effects, Joshua J. Dyck and Edward L. Lascher, Jr., 2