ABSTRACT
This chapter begins by looking at changes in how individual citizens can connect to state government through elections and through a number of reforms that allow individuals to influence governments between elections, what is labeled as nonelectoral participation. It reviews more closely at a number of critical developments in the character of the states' elections and nonelectoral political participation. Reapportionment often yielded greater state aid to urban areas and increased welfare spending, and states with a longer history of reapportionment subsequently spent more on education, public health, hospitals, and highways. Direct democracy has expanded the policy agenda of the states and provides citizens the opportunity to directly influence policy decisions. Effective citizen participation in government requires, at a minimum, that citizens have access to public meetings and information about government actions. The idea of public hearings is hardly new to state governments. In general, studies indicate that open meeting and record laws are likely to work only for attentive publics.
