Initiatives and Referendums

choi

Tamara Audi, Worries Swirls Over California's Initiatives; Supreme Court's dismissal of state's gay-marriage ban raises concerns that the move sets precedent limiting voter power. Wall Street Journal, July 1, 2013.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB ... 75992886711294.html

My comment:
(a) There is no need to read text; view the graphic only.
(b) Concerns are not warranted. Poker-faced, Supreme Court's twin decisions on gay marriage are based on interpretation of law and constitution.
(c) initiatives and referendums in the United States
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ini ... n_the_United_States

, whose definitions of initiaties or referendums are the same as those in the WSJ report.  Then, it is clear that in civic lessons of Taiwan, initiatives and referendums corresponds to 創制 and 複決, respectively--though 公民投票 is generally used there (but none has been successful).
(d) history of direct democracy in the United States
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/His ... n_the_United_States
(South Dakota was the first state to adopt the referendum, in 1898, patterning its system after that of Switzerland)
(e) I have not seen the world plebiscite in states of America. On the contrary, "ballot questions" are common.