Court rulings on local efforts to manage growth by initiative and referendum in California
unusually broad and well-entrenched in California. As a result of that right, residents of that state have employed both of these tools of direct democracy to manage local growth. In this article the initiative will be treated as the power of voters to draft and implement growth control measures within local governmental settings. The local growth control referendum will, in turn, represent their power to rescind local governmental actions that fail to promote a desired level of growth control. This article describes how courts in California have developed a body of case law governing such local efforts to control growth by direct legislation.
Determining land use policy via the ballot box: The growth initiative blitz in California
Abstract Californians are afforded the opportunity to participate in the planning process and to voice their opinions to their elected officials in a variety of ways. However, for various reasons citizens have taken the opportunity to develop local legislation designed to manage or control growth. Once passed by the electorate, this legislation becomes law and must be enforced by the municipality. The use of direct democracy and ballot box planning in California is increasing and is expected to increase in the future. This paper examines how and why Californians have turned to the ballot box to decide land use matters. Examples of recent ballot measures and implications of ballot box planning are provided.
The Italian Renaissance: Culture and Society in Italy
In this newly revised edition of his widely acclaimed work, Peter Burke presents a social and cultural history of the Italian Renaissance. He discusses the social and political institutions that existed in Italy during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and he analyzes the ways of thinking and seeing that characterized this period of extraordinary artistic creativity. Developing a distinctive approach, the author is concerned not only with the finished works of Michelangelo, Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, and others, but also with the social background, patterns of recruitment, and means of subsistence of this "cultural elite." He thus makes a major contribution both to our understanding of the Italian Renaissance and to our comprehension of the complex relations between culture and society. An excellent social history of the lives and culture of the artists and artisans which made it possible for the arts to flourish.