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Do small but wealthy interest groups influence referendums, ballot initiatives, and other forms of direct legislation at the expense of the broader public interest? Many observers argue that they do, often lamenting that direct legislation has, paradoxically, been captured by the very same wealthy interests whose power it was designed to curb. Elisabeth Gerber, however, challenges that argument. In this first systematic study of how money and interest group power actually affect direct legislation, she reveals that big spending does not necessarily mean big influence. Gerber bases her findin

Providing a comprehensive understanding of adoption issues and based on research with a large number of adoptive parents, children and birth relatives, the authors consider the impact of direct post-adoption contact on all concerned.

Giving Voters a Voice studies the origins of direct legislation, one of the most important political reforms enacted during the Progressive Era. Steven L. Piott begins with the source of the idea in the United States and proceeds to the earliest efforts aimed at generating a national movement to expand the parameters of popular democracy in the 1890s. He then broadens his examination to include the unique ways in which twenty-two states came to enact legislation allowing for the statewide initiative and referendum between 1898 and 1918. The book's appendix offers the only comprehensive listing of all the ballot propositions and vote totals for the period. Most historians of the Progressive Era have concluded that narrow self-interest prevented labor, farmers, and the middle class from working together to achieve important reforms. Giving Voters a Voice demonstrates that middle-class reformers, trade unionists, and farm organizers formed loose political coalitions and directed grass-roots campaigns to gain passage of initiative and referendum statutes because direct legislation offered the best means to correct political, economic, and social abuses. But there was more than just a shared sense of common interest that brought these seemingly oppositional groups together. What really made them willing to speak, lobby, and work together was quite simply the frustration felt by voters who sensed that they had become economically dependent and politically powerless. Each state in which proponents conducted an active campaign to win adoption of direct legislation is studied in detail. The book analyzes the crucial roles played by individuals who led the movement to empower voters by enabling them to enact or veto legislation directly, and reveals the arguments, the stumbling blocks, and political compromises that are often slighted in generalized overviews. Each state possessed its own political dynamic. Giving Voters a Voice offers the reader a richness of detail and a completeness of coverage not found elsewhere.

Series Page -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Foreword -- Notes on Contributors -- Introduction. German Unification, Public Policy, and Federalism -- Chapter 1. Historical Dimensions of German Statehood -- Chapter 2. On the Misery of the German Financial Constitution -- Chapter 3. Territorial Reform of the Lander -- Chapter 4. Lander Pariliaments in the Federation -- Chapter 5. Germany's Latent Constitutional Conflict -- Chapter 6. The Changing Party System and the Challenge of Direct Democracy -- Chapter 7. Direct Legislation in United Germany

How social movements matter : past research, present problems, future developments / Marco Giugni -- Social movements and public policy / Paul Burstein -- Making an impact : conceptual and methodological implications of the collective goods criterion / Edwin Amenta and Michael P. Young -- The impact of social movements on political institutions : a comparison of the introduction of direct legislation in Switzerland and the United States / Hanspeter Kriesi and Dominique Wisler -- Protest, protesters and protest policing : public discourses in Italy and Germany from the 1960s to the 1980s / Donatella della Porta -- Political protest and institutional change : the anti-Vietnam war movement and American science / Kelly Moore -- The biographical impact of activism / Doug McAdam -- Feminist politics in a hostile environment : obstacles and opportunities / Joyce Gelb and Vivien Hart -- How the Cold War was really won : the effects of the antinuclear movements of the 1980s / David S. Meyer -- The impact of environmental movements in western societies / Dieter Rucht -- Ethnic and civic conceptions of nationhood and th differential success of the extreme right in Germany and Italy / Ruud Koopmans and Paul Statham -- From interactions to outcomes in social movements / Charles Tilly