Word: referendums
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Person of the Week By urging a referendum on a declaration of independence from China, Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian earned a week of sound bites and fury from an agitated Beijing bent on reunification. Fiery threats of p.l.a. military action eased after conciliatory gestures from Chen, and the parties got back to the business of forging stronger economic ties...
...avoid misunderstandings. China was angered by President Chen Shui-bian's suggestion that, in reality, Taiwan and China were already separate countries. An unnamed "senior military source" warned in the China Daily, a state-run newspaper, that Chen might risk invasion if he pressed ahead with a referendum on Taiwan's independence. China regards the island as a rebel province...
...need. The legal pot conundrum is hardly a new debate in California, but what's notable here is that proponents of the measure have decided to bypass the local representatives by trying to get it on the city ballot in November. That's just what voters need - another referendum passed down by bureaucrats who are too irresolute to do their jobs...
...them. They are paid, usually decent salaries, to consider complex issues and vote on them. Because they devote all their time to government, they are supposed to understand all the subtleties and complexities of a proposal. By passing the buck to voters in the form of a referendum, they're asking you to do their job for them...
...founders' intent gets short-circuited in the voting booth in two ways. One is through a referendum, where an oftentimes controversial measure, like a tax increase or financing for a new football stadium (or, in many cases, both), is put on the ballot by the state legislature. The second is an initiative sponsored by voters themselves, courtesy of a grassroots movement that has gathered enough signatures to land the item on the ballot...