Narrative Politics in Public Policy by Hugh T. Miller

Author:Hugh T. Miller
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783030453206
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

1 Enactment: Legalization by Direct Democracy

Legalization successes have been registered in 2/3 of the American states with respect to medical cannabis, and in at least 20% of the states with respect to adult-use, recreational cannabis as of this writing. Direct-democracy seems to have sparked the legalization trend; the first eight states to legalize medical cannabis did so via ballot initiative. Nine of the first 11 states to legalize adult-use, recreational cannabis did so via ballot initiatives. Ballot initiatives are not allowed in nearly half the states.

Legalization via ballot initiative may enhance the policy discourse if media coverage is an indicator. In one study, media coverage of cannabis legalization was concentrated in states where legalization of adult-use cannabis was a ballot issue (McGinty et al. 2016). A chart in their research report showed that from the beginning of 2010, when their study period began, to 2012, the number of newspaper articles on legalizing recreational cannabis was negligible. But there was a discernable uptick in media coverage when election day was on the immediate horizon in Washington and Colorado. This suggests that without imminent ballot initiatives coming up for a vote in those states, the public discourse on cannabis policy would have been insignificant. Does the ballot initiative stimulate debate? “Direct democracy processes do allow debate in public forums well beyond the legislative hearing chambers, and as a result, public officials, newspapers, radio and television stations, and various interest groups often take a stand and trigger at least limited public discussion …” (Cronin 1989, 226). The more public the discourse, the more active the public campaigning on the part of advocates and opponents—though this also can open new possibilities for the role of money in the political process. Indeed, McMorris et al. (2018) noted that narrative approaches do not inherently take due account of resource differentials. Opponents of Measure 97, a 2016 ballot initiative to raise taxes on large corporations in the state of Oregon, doubled the campaign spending of groups supporting the ballot question leading up to the election—and the measure failed at the ballot box. The problem of unequal resources may be more intertwined with narratives than is superficially apparent, because “unequal capacities in telling collective stories account for asymmetrical, uneven distributions of power …” (Claisse and Delvenne 2017, 257). This omnipresent political reality of unequal resources in American politics does not obviate the usefulness of narrative analysis in all contexts or all ballot initiatives, however. “Do direct democracy devices provide an effective safety valve when legislators prove timid, corrupt, or dominated by narrow special interests? Generally, yes,” according to Cronin (224). A ballot initiative encourages officials to reconsider their policies and practices, he adds. Unlike the 1980s when state governments rescinded their decriminalization laws under pressure from the federal government, states have not, as of this writing, recriminalized cannabis once it was legalized. The trend has been unidirectional.

Allowing ballot initiatives does not mean that a legalization initiative will be successful. Voters in Arizona, which allows direct-democracy ballot initiatives, nonetheless rejected legalized adult-use cannabis in 2016 with 48.

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