A group of community members assembled at UCCI on Thursday, 25 June for a public meeting hosted by People for Referendum featuring guest speaker, Dr John Matsusaka, President of the Initiative & Referendum Institute. Back - left to right: Olson Anderson, Mitch Ebanks, Dalkieth Bothwell, Austin Harris, Dennie Warren and Billy Adam. Front - left to right: Matthew Adam, Barbara Conolly, Dr John G. Matsusaka and Alexander Conolly.

By Kevin Shereves
kevin@caymannetnews.com

A leading US expert on referendums and voter participation spoke at a public meeting organised by People for Referendum on Thursday, 25 June at the University College of the Cayman Islands.

Dr John Matsusaka is the President of the Initiative & Referendum Institute; Vice Dean for Faculty & Academic Affairs in the Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California; and a Professor at Marshall School of Business, the Gould School of Law, and the Political Science department at the University of Southern California.

Dr Matsusaka shared some of his expertise on the subject of voter participative initiative and referendum governance systems at the meeting.

Among the topics discussed were important aspects of referendums such as the use of referendums in Commonwealth countries, the history of initiative in referendum, constitutional modernization, and participatory democracy.

Dr Matsusaka said, “One of the things that a referendum does is that it allows for non-violent change to take effect in society. Many people are now more educated and they just want to have their say. The dissemination of information is what is leading the trend and through technology and the Internet ordinary people are now saying ‘I want to have a say’ and this is the leading inertia driving people in democracies throughout the world.”

He continued, “The fact that we spend so much time writing laws and rules means that humans do not always do the right thing, elected representatives do not always do the right thing, and sometimes small groups of people do not do the right thing. That is a part of the reason why referendums have experienced a comeback on many levels and have increased in frequency around the world.”

Dr Matsusaka added, “We should not only consider discussing whether direct participation by the citizen is a good or bad thing, but we need to get a better understanding about how referendums interact with the traditional institutions of representative democracy.”

People for Referendum member Billy Adam noted the importance of discussing thse topics in a public forum.

Mr Adam said, “Our school system needs to be overhauled because they do not teach governance and civics issues in the schools like they used to and as a result we live in a virtual political education desert.”

He continued, “Our young people should not be kept in the dark about the political process especially where the constitution is concerned. The education process in the referendum got hung up on the human rights section. In the US, children are taught about the constitution in the 5th grade. In Cayman they do not teach the constitution because they do not want people to understand government.”

Mr Adam added, “If civics was a required subject in schools, then young people would have a better understanding of the constitution. For any referendum to work you need an informed electorate and many people did not make an informed decision in the recent referendum because they listened to others and did not read the constitution for themselves. As a result, people are now feeling somewhat resentful that they were misled by the wording of the document.

“The vast majority of the people supported change but the constitution is not in favor of the Cayman Islands. The constitution is a UK document and many people were fooled into voting yes. The document gives the UK total dominion over our country subject to clause 31 and 125 of the constitution,” he said.

Barbara Conolly is a political advisor to Leader of the Opposition, Hon Kurt Tibbetts. She said, “The whole constitution issue needs to be introduced into the school system here in the Cayman Islands. Young people need to learn more about their constitution. Every other country teaches some form of constitutional studies.”

Ms Conolly continued, “We need to take a look at the current curriculum and come up with something better for our young people. We need to reform our school curriculum because so many young people do not know about referendums and the constitutional process on a whole. We need to advocate for a better education system because this will help to promote and empower young Caymanians.”

Dr Matsusaka received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago, and has held visiting appointments at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, UCLA, Caltech, and the University of Chicago.

His research focuses on the financing, governance, and organisation of corporations and governments. He has published numerous scholarly articles, served as a consultant for the White House Council of Economic Advisors, and is the author of the 2004 book For the Many or the Few:
The Initiative, Public Policy, and American Democracy.

Dr Matsusaka is widely regarded as an expert on government budgets and taxes, initiatives, referendums and other ballot propositions. He was appointed President of the Initiative & Referendum Institute in 2004.

In 2001 he joined with 60-plus economists to write President George W Bush a letter urging his rejection of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD’s) so-called “Harmful Tax Competition” initiative.