170-7-779
As one reporter wrote in 1896, “it didn’t matter whether a man was a Republican or Democrat. The Southern Pacific Railroad controlled both parties, and he either had to stay out of the game altogether or play it with the railroad.” This was the corruption that enraged California’s Progressives. Hiram Johnson was especially livid. He had begun as a fisticuffs prosecutor in bribery and graft trials where he won the fame that launched him into politics.
From the start, Californian direct democracy thus had the opposite social purpose of its Swiss mother. As Ms Casanova says, the Californian system was designed to be “confrontational”. For example, it is quite difficult for petitioners to call a referendum, which merely passes judgment on a decision by elected representatives. But it is easy to launch an initiative, which circumvents the legislature by letting citizens make law.
California is also unique, in America and the world, in treating every successful initiative as irreversible (unless the initiative itself says otherwise). The legislature cannot change it. In effect, this makes initiatives a higher class of law. In California they often amend the constitution. And whereas Switzerland ensures that different initiatives are mutually compatible, California makes no such effort. A single ballot can contain directly contradictory initiatives, in which case the one with the most yes votes wins.

A. 어휘
Republican 미국 공화당의원(당원). Democrat 미국 민주당의원(당원).
corruption 부패. enrage 격노시키다. livid 검푸른, 격노한.
fisticuffs 주먹다짐, 亂鬪劇(난투극). prosecutor 검찰관, 고발인.
bribery 뇌물행위, 收賄(수회). graft 瀆職(독직), 收賄(수회), 接木(접목).
confrontational 대결적인. petitioners 청원인.
elected representatives 선출된 대표자. circumvents 우회하다, 앞지르다.
irreversible 뒤집을 수 없는, 破棄(파기)할 수 없는, 역전시킬 수 없는.
mutually 상호적으로. ballot 투표. contradictory 모순적인.