Lessons from Recent State Constitutional Conventions

Abstract

THE CALIFORNIA Journal of Politics & Policy Volume 2, Issue 2 Lessons from Recent State Constitutional Conventions Vladimir Kogan Stanford University and University of California, San Diego Abstract Over the past 45 years, 15 American states have held constitutional conventions to confront the pressing concerns of the day. These conventions pursued markedly different paths toward constitutional reform, and achieved widely varying degrees of success. The experience of these states provides important insights for policy- makers and citizens that can help identify both models worthy of emulation and the potential pitfalls of reform. The likely success of state constitutional conventions appears tied not to the identity of delegates or the selection mechanism used to recruit them but rather to the scope of the possible revisions and the way in which amendments are presented to voters for final approval. In addition, recent politi- cal history suggests that voters remain reluctant to empanel conventions to pursue wholesale reform, rejecting every call for a constitutional convention that has ap- peared on a state ballot since 1990. Keywords: state constitutions, constitutional reform, direct democracy, constitu- tional conventions www.bepress.com/cjpp