SPONSORING ORGANIZATIONS
CITIZENS IN CHARGE FOUNDATION (CICF)
Citizens in Charge Foundation (CICF) works to protect, defend, and expand the initiative and referendum rights, without regard to partisanship or politics. CICF is dedicated to the belief that citizens should be in charge of their government. One of the best tools that citizens have for enacting change is the initiative and referendum process. Our organization is made up of activists, legislators, financial supporters, opinion leaders, and most importantly — citizens — who come together to protect and defend this process where it exists and extend it to where it does not. But no matter our background, we all recognize that additional checks on state legislatures are to be encouraged.
Citizens in Charge Foundation works with activists, legislators, media, opinion leaders and voters to protect the tools of self-determination where they exist and to expand the tools of self-governance. We also work to educate the public on the benefits of citizen initiative, referendum and recall and litigate through the court system to protect and expand those rights.
We believe that citizen control of government is essential for peace, prosperity, and freedom, and that the citizen initiative process is a necessary check on the power of state legislatures.
The process of initiative and referendum is critical if we are to shift power back into the hands of ordinary citizens. Citizens in Charge Foundation is uniquely positioned to defend the ballot initiative process in states where it exists and expand it where citizens currently lack these critical tools to self-determination.
INITIATIVE AND REFERENDUM INSTITUTE EUROPE (IRIE)
The Initiative and Referendum Institute Europe (IRI Europe), founded in 2001, is a European think-tank dedicated to research and educate on procedures and practices of modern Direct Democracy.
As a non-partisan, non-profit association, the Institute's main mission is to develop insights into the theory and practice of modern Direct Democracy among politicians, the media, NGOs, academics and the public throughout Europe – and beyond. Since its establishment IRI Europe has assisted and advised the EU constitution drafters – first in the Convention, subsequently in the EU institutions and member states, the electorates across Europe and now in the Conference on the Future of Europe – in seizing the opportunity of developing democratic tools which are both issue-based and pan-European.
One key result of this work is the first transnational direct-democratic tool: the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI), first established in 2011. By 2020 the rules and procedures of the ECI have been updated in a citizen-friendly manner.
IRI Europe is today an acknowledged research and educational institute focusing on the initiative and referendum process across Europe. With a comprehensive network of experts and correspondents throughout the region, the Institute is uniquely equipped to provide the know-how and the tools Europe (and the wider world) needs.
IRI Europe’s informational and educational materials include Guidebooks and Passports as well as publication series dedicated to the European Citizens´ Initiative.
In all its projects IRI Europe cooperates closely with partners from civil society, governmental institutions, and international players. Beyond its European focus the Institute has developed a fully-fledged network of cooperation’s across the globe.
The Institute is led by journalists, politicians, academics and civil society experts from different political parties, backgrounds and countries. Our sister institute in the United States is working in the same way with a focus on America.
The Institute has an open approach to cooperation and has developed a far-reaching reputation as Europe’s Direct Democracy Think Tank. For further information please contact IRI´s president Bruno Kaufmann or secretary general Adrian Schmid.
INITIATIVE AND REFERENDUM INSTITUTE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA (IRIUSC)
The Initiative and Referendum Institute at the University of Southern California is a non-partisan educational organization dedicated to the study of the initiative and referendum, the two most important processes of direct democracy.
The Institute was founded in 1998 in Washington D.C. by M. Dane Waters. Waters, who had cut his teeth using the initiative process pushing term limits across the country, felt it was important for there to be an impartial clearing house for information on direct democracy. In 2004, the Institute joined the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, in order to advance the Institute’s educational mission. Upon the move to USC, John Matsusaka became executive director of the Institute; Waters remained chairman of the advisory board.
Edwin Meese, III, former U.S. Attorney General under President Ronald Reagan, had this to say about the Institute, “[T]he Initiative & Referendum Institute performs a valuable service to the Nation by providing research and educational programs to protect and expand the democratic process of initiative and referendum by the people in the several states. Having this electoral ability is a critical ‘safety valve’ for effective citizenship.”
The Initiative and Referendum Institute collects and distributes information on the initiative and referendum process. And sponsors studies of various aspects of direct democracy, including its effect on public policy, citizen participation, and its reflection of trends in American thought and culture. The Institute produces a state-by-state guide to the initiative and referendum process and works to educate and update the public on how the process is being utilized across the country, particularly at the state level. The Initiative and Referendum Institute is a primary source for information about direct democracy, and has been cited by numerous media outlets including, ABC News, CNN, Fox News, CNN, CBS Radio, NPR, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Washington Post, The Economist, The Chicago Tribune, The Christian Science Monitor, The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, The National Journal, Governing Magazine, Court TV’s “Supreme Court Watch” and “Washington Watch”, Campaigns and Elections Magazine, U.S. News and World Report, Congressional Quarterly, Voter News Service, Pacific Radio Network.
COMMISSION MEMBERS
PAUL JACOB
Paul is a leading national figure in initiative and referendum as president of Citizens in Charge and Citizens in Charge Foundation. He has worked on over 100 initiative and ballot access campaigns in nearly every state in the U.S. over the last four decades. Paul has also been actively involved in international direct democracy efforts, from observing the 1993 Russian referendums on behalf of the Kreible Institute to addressing Global Forums on Modern Direct Democracy in the U.S. (2010), Uruguay (2012), Spain (2016), Italy (2018), and Taiwan (2019).
BRUNO KAUFMANN
Bruno has covered elections and referendums around the world as a journalist for more than 30 years. Trained as a political scientist Bruno has been assessing initiative and referendum legislation globally and published many books, guides, and recommendations on the issue. Back home in Sweden Bruno Kaufmann served as Chairman of the Election & Democracy Commission in the city of Falun and is currently member of a national commission to review the electoral system. Bruno is the President of the Initiative and Referendum Institute Europe and co-chairs the Global Forum on Modern Direct Democracy and is the author of the “Global Passport to Modern Direct Democracy”.
PROFESSOR MATT QVORTRUP, PHD.
Educated at Brasenose College, University of Oxford Matt QVORTRUP DPhil (Oxon), is Professor of Political Science at Coventry University. A Qualified lawyer, he is adjunct professor of political theory at The American University of Rome. Matt has previously held professorial positions at The London School of Economics and University College, London, and has been a visiting professor at Sorbonne, Paris. Described by the BBC as ‘the world’s leading expert on referendums”, and by the Financial Times as “a world authority” on the subject, he has writer several books, including Government by Referendum (2017), Referendums Around the World (Palgrave 2016), and Referendums and Ethnic Conflict (2014), and A Comparative Study of Referendums (2002).
In addition to his distinguished academic career, Professor has served on several boards and commissions. He began his career as an advisor to the British Government in the late 1990s, and has served in other positions including as an envoy for the US State Department in Sudan (2009), as a chief advisor for the House of Commons Constitutional Affairs Committee (2015), as an expert member on a commission overseeing the 2019 referendum in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea, and as counsellor on the regulation of referendums for the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office 2019-2020.
Matt Qvortrup gained prominence when he correctly predicted the outcome of the 2016 Brexit referendums three months before the vote.
M. DANE WATERS
Dane has worked on six continents providing strategic advice to campaigns, governments, activists, academic institutions, and NGO’s. He has also consulted on projects with the United Nations, the U.S. Department of State and the International Republican Institute. He was a political appointee in President George H. W. Bush’s administration and has worked on five U.S. presidential campaigns as well as presidential and prime ministerial campaigns around the world. Dane is one of the few people who has worked on all aspects of direct democracy campaigns – from helping governments draft the laws that will govern the election, to helping win or defeat an issue on the ballot, to providing international observers to ensure that a referendum election meets internationally accepted norms.
Dane is the founder and Chair of the Initiative & Referendum Institute at the University of Southern California – a research and educational organization established to study direct democracy. He is the co-founder of the Initiative & Referendum Institute Europe and serves on the board of Democracy International, an organization that works to strengthen direct democracy opportunities around the world.
Dane has authored and edited numerous articles and books on direct democracy and has provided commentary on governance issues to newspapers, radio talk shows, and television stations around the world.
Dr. YANINA WELP
Yanina is Research Fellow at the Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy. Between 2008 and 2018 she has been principal researcher at the Centre for Democracy Studies and co-director of the Zurich Latin American Centre (2016-2019), both at the University of Zurich. Her main areas of study are the introduction and practices of mechanisms of direct and participatory democracy, and digital media and politics, i.e. ‘democratic innovations’. She has published extensively on these topics in academic journals and books. Her last edited book is The Politics of Recall Elections (with Laurence Whitehead, 2020, Palgrave).
In terms of knowledge transfer, she has worked with many public institutions in given advise and or observing processes of citizen’s participation. Examples include electoral institutes from Mexico (Instituto Nacional Electoral and Tribunal Electoral del Poder Judicial de la Federación), Mexico City (Instituto Electoral del Distrito Federal) and Nueva León (Comisión Electoral del Estado de Nueva León); the ombudsman of Montevideo (Defensoría del Vecino); the Institute of Democracy in Ecuador (Instituto de la Democracy); and the National Jury of Elections (Jurado Nacional de Elecciones, JNE) and the National Office of Electoral Procesess (ONPE) in Peru. She has experience in working with international organizations. For instance, at the invitation of International IDEA, she has been a consultant for the Chilean Government (October 2015 and January 2016) in relation to proposed constitutional changes towards democratic participation; and has participated in the Electoral Observation Mission of the Organization of American States (OAS) to observe the referendums in Bolivia (February 21, 2016) and Ecuador (February 4, 2018), among others.
NOTE: Participation by the organizations and individuals in this Commission does not in any way constitute support for PUNJAB REFERENDUM 2020 nor does it take a position on Sikhs for Justice or any of their underlying claims.