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Massachusetts has several forms of direct democracy, allowing for initiative and referendums at the state level and in many municipalities. The recall of public officials is also provided for in many municipalities.

History

The progressive movement started discussions about adopting direct democracy across the United States, and Massachusetts developed a local branch. The state branch of the Populist Party adopted the statewide initiative and referendum in its 1895 platform. State representative Henry Stirling proposed some of the first legislation for direct democracy in 1900. It was eventually enacted in 1917 at the state constitutional convention.^[1]

State government

Initiatives

The state allows an indirect form of initiative for laws and constitutional amendments, and the state is considered one of the most restrictive of the states that allow initiatives.

Excluded subjects

Initiatives must be confined to one subject and cannot relate to judges and courts, relate only to specific municipalities of the state, relate to religion, make specific appropriations of money, or restrict the Declaration of Rights in the state constitution.^[2] The Office of the Attorney General of Massachusetts may do an informal review to ensure it passes these requirements.

Free petition

Massachusetts has a unique form of direct democracy in the free petition. This allows any person or group to file a bill in the state legislature, which are treated equally as a bill filed by a representative.^[3]^[4] The petition must be considered by the legislature and are submitted to a committee for public discussion, and may be voted on and enacted like any other piece of legislation.^[5]

In practice, this form of direct democracy is rarely successful in enacted new laws. In the 2015-2016 session there were at least 177 bills filed by private individuals in the state, with only four leaving committee for a floor vote and none being enacted.^[6]

Massachusetts is the only state in the country to allow citizens to file bills directly into the legislature.

Advisory questions

The General Court may put a non binding public policy question on the ballot, and constituents may also hold a nonbinding vote to instruct a representative in the legislature how they should vote on laws. The General Court may also put amendments to the US constitution on the ballot, but they are only advisory

List of referendums

1631-1779


Summary of Referendums 1631-1779
Accepted	11
Rejected	3
Unknown	1
Total	15


Year	Result	Description
1639	Accepted	Approval of the Body of Liberties
1643	Accepted	Approval of the Articles of the New England Confederation
1644	Rejected	Election of deputies by countries instead of towns
1644	Unknown	Providing compensation for magistrates and deputies
1647	Rejected	Reducing the number of deputies to one from each town.
1689	Accepted	Resumption of the Charter revoked in 1684
1689	Accepted	Further consideration of the above question
1765	Accepted	Compensation for damages done by the mob in Boston
1776	Accepted	Approval of the Declaration of Independence
1776	Accepted	Permitting Council and the House of Representatives to frame a constitution.
1777	Accepted	Instructing Representative to act with Council in framing a constitution
1778	Rejected	Approval of the Articles of Confederation of the United States
1778	Rejected	Ratification of the Constitution of 1778
1779	Accepted	To determine whether the people desire a new constitution
1779	Accepted	Shall the representatives call a new constitutional convention?
Source ^[7]