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Theory: Democratic theory and theories of public policy frame the concern for the rights of minorities in the face of majority opposition. Hypotheses: Without the filtering mechanisms of the representative system, direct democracy promotes majority tyranny as the scope of civil rights conflicts expands and citizens vote on civil rights laws. Methods: The paper analyzes over three decades of initiatives and popular referenda from five major civil rights areas: housing and public accommodations for racial minorities, school desegregation, gay rights, English language laws, and AIDS policies. Results: Citizen initiatives that restrict civil rights experience extraordinary electoral success: voters have approved over three-quarters of these, while endorsing only a third of all initiatives and popular referenda.
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Barbara S. Gamble (1997) studied this question.
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