.
NCSL
Debates 'Republic on Trial'and Public
Cynicism
by
Judah Ken Freed
Representative
versus direct democracy discussed at
annual meeting for National Conference of
State Legislators.
.
A
defense of representative democracy from
electoral corruption and the inroads of
direct democracy stirred lively debate at
a closing session of the National
Conference of State Legislators 2002
conference in Denver on July 26.
At the center of the
discussion was a new book from
Congressional Quarterly Press, Republic
on Trial: The Case for Representative
Democracy, by Alan Rosenthal, Burdett
Loomis, John Hibbing, and Karl
Kurtz.
"The work originally
was a pamphlet written to educate new
state legislature interns," explained
panel moderator Gary Moncrief, a professor
of political science at Boise State
University in Idaho. "This was expanded
into a booklet for state legislators
themselves, and now it's become a
full-length book hot off the press for
state and Congressional
lawmakers."
Why is the book
needed?
"Representative
democracy is under fire right now and it's
supporters are few," Moncrief said. "The
case against it is being heard everywhere
you turn in the media, so now the American
public has become very cynical about
government. Because the case for our
republic needs to be heard, this book
attempts to reverse that cynicism by
showing that democracy hangs on a
diversity of views being vigorously
represented."
"What resonated most
with me from the book," said Richard
Bagger, a New Jersey state senator, "was
the idea that most voters think their own
position is the only one that make sense
in any objective, scientific way. Voters
assume that any legislator who disagrees
with them must either be uninformed in the
grip of some nefarious special interest
that keeps them from the true answer." We
believe anyone who disagrees with us is
crazy.
"I think the book is
too rosy when it talks about
representative democracy as a balance of
special interests," said panelist Alice
Madden, a Democrat elected in 2000 to
represent Colorado House District 14.
"Frankly, when I took office, I was amazed
at the overwhelming influence of special
interests in the legislature. I've seen
first-hand that when there is not a
balance of political power, when one party
has a landslide majority, it can cause
real damage."
"She raises a point
I thought was missing from the book,"
injected Peter Harkness, editor and
publisher of Governing magazine,
affiliated with Congressional Quarterly
Press. "I wish the book had a serious
discussion about the influence of campaign
money, such as legislators accepting rides
on corporate jets to attend meetings. Even
where there clearly is no quid pro
quo, the public assumes these favors
are being traded for votes, and that
perception alone is devastating to public
trust."
"The book does not
differentiate between the mindset for
Congress and state legislators," said
panelist Jeffrey Lane, vice president for
state and local government relations at
Proctor and Gamble, based in Cincinnati.
"State legislators tend to look at trade
issues differently than they do in
Washington, where the pressures of
national affairs tends to get things
screwed up. But other than that, I'd call
this book a 'must read' for legislators
and the public alike."
"I think a better
title for the book would have been
'Republic At Risk,'" said David Skaggs,
former U.S. Representative from Colorado's
2nd Congressional District, now executive
director of the Center for Democracy and
Citizenship, also leading the Council for
Excellence in Government, based together
in Washington, DC. "The books is trying to
grab us by the scruff our collective necks
and remind us of what we set out do in
creating this democracy. If we do not have
the courage to stand up for our
principles, no one else will.
"Nature abhors a
vacuum," Skaggs continued, "and something
will always fill the gap. If Congress or
state legislators give away power to the
executive branch, such as with a line item
veto, then legislators are saying, in
effect, that they cannot do their job
properly, so they might as well give up
and let themselves be ruled by a
king."
"Any state
legislature is a difficult place to be
right now," said Art Hamilton, who spent
26 years in the Arizona legislature before
becoming senior government relations
representative for the Salt River Project
in Phoenix. "Legislators face a lack of
money, lack of resources, and lack of
public respect. This makes the job
unattractive, but on top of that, too many
people come into the state legislature
looking for the next step up the ladder,
rather than thinking it's a good place to
stay and work hard for the public
good."
Hamilton
acknowledged the stress of having to
explain votes of conscience that go
against popular views, "but if your only
purpose in life as a legislator is to hold
up your finger to test the winds of public
opinion, you're missing the point. You
have to be willing to exercise your best
judgment and defend it on election
day."
"In a time when the
public thinks that all politicians are
knaves or fools or criminals," said
Bagger, "we need to go out and
aggressively recruit the most talented and
creative people possible to run for
elected office. We've had no shortage of
candidates in New Jersey, but a lot of the
best people are discouraged from
running."
"The challenge is
getting out the message about the value of
public service in the face of media
cynicism," said Harkness. "But the press
is having a hard time recruiting qualified
talent. Especially hard hit is the lower
paying print media, which has
traditionally set the agenda for the
higher paying electronic media, which
tends to operate on the principle in TV
news that if it bleeds it leads. Unlike
newspapers, how many TV stations have a
reporter permanently assigned to cover
local or state government?"
"The media is
essential in making the experiment in
democracy succeed," said Skaggs, "but too
many reporters are doing the same thing as
legislators, thinking of their current job
as a stepping stone to something else
rather than doing the best job they can
right now."
"The best way to get
the public to have confidence in state
legislatures and Congress is campaign
finance reform," said Madden. "Until we
have publicly funded election with free
media providing equal time for candidates,
the press and the public have a right to
be cynical about elections.
"I've talked to a
lot of good people,: Madden added, "who
said they would never run for Congress
because they don't want to spend half
their time fundraising when they should be
attending to their
constituents."
"I think term limits
may be the worst things that's happened so
far to undermine representative
democracy," said Lane. "It takes years to
understand the legislative process from
the inside, and just when you finally have
the expertise to make a real difference,
you're out of office. That's why so much
of the legislative work now is being done
by staff instead of the elected
representatives, and that's why
legislators have to rely on partisan
lobbyists for information."
"There's an
appropriate role for partisanship," said
Bagger, "We could not function in our
legislatures without the party system, but
it's hard to extend hands across the isle
after a mud fight."
"Partisanship is one
of the reasons so many candidates are
running against the legislatures where
they intend to serve," said Hamilton.
"Given public attitudes, who's willing to
use their political capital to defend the
institution as a whole?"
"Those in Congress
and state legislatures need to stop
thinking of themselves as partisans," said
Skaggs. "Instead, legislators need to
think of themselves as cooperative members
of problem-solving bodies working for the
common good. When the public sees that
happening, that's when cynicism will fade
and representative democracy will no
longer be on trial."
Revised
from first publication in The Colorado
Statesman
August 2002
(c) 2002-03 by Judah Ken Freed
|
