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6 NEXUS 237 (2001)
Californians and Their Constitution: Progressivism, Direct Democracy and the Administrative State

handle is hein.journals/nex6 and id is 241 raw text is: Californians and Their Constitution: Progressivism, Direct Democracy and the Administrative State Edward J. Erler* I am persuaded that the good sense of the people will always be found to be the best army. They may be led astray for a moment, but will soon correct themselves. The people are the only censors of their governors: and even their errors will tend to keep these to the true principles of the institution. To punish these errors too severely would be to suppress the only safe- guard of the public liberty. -Thomas Jefferson1 A majority, held in restraint by consti- tutional checks, and limitations, and always changing easily, with deliber- ate changes of popular opinions and sentiments, is the only true sovereign of a free people. -Abraham Lincoln2 California's first constitution, adopted in 1849, was praised by a distinguished his- torian as one of the best, if not the very best, of all the thirty-one state constitutions that then existed. Though nearly ev- ery provision was copied from some other instrument, there was a rare choice and combination making alto- gether a compilation of organic prin- ciples clearly and tersely expressed and admirable for the wisdom with which they were selected.3 One could hardly claim that the cur- rent California Constitution, adopted in 1879, is either clearly and tersely ex- pressed, or a statement of organic prin- ciples. In the sesquicentennial edition of the constitution published by the Califor- nia Legislature, the text runs to more than 250 pages, and addresses so many policy issues that it resembles the prolixity of a legal code more than it does organic law.4 Since 1879, the constitution has been amended nearly five hundred times, often haphazardly and improvidently. Yet, many of these amendments have proved benefi- cial, while others have simply been trivial. We find, for example, that the salary of public school teachers cannot be less than twenty-four hundred dollars5 and that [tihe people shall have the right to fish upon and from the public lands of the state,6 but not the right to hunt. And there is this helpful rule of construction: [tihe * Professor of Political Science, California State University, San Bernardino; Ph.D. Claremont Graduate School, 1973. Dr. Erler is a Senior Fellow at the Claremont Institute and author of THE AMERICAN POu'Ty (1991). Dr. Erler served on the California Constitutional Revision Commission.

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