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Periodic State Constitutional Convention Referendums: Their Development Since America’s Founding
Author(s): J.H. Snider (Author)
- Publisher: Routledge
- Publication Date: 5 May 2026
- Edition: 1st
- Language: English
- Print length: 520 pages
- ISBN-10: 104102259X
- ISBN-13: 9781041022596
Book Description
Vital reading for all politics students, this book teaches the history of the Periodic Constitutional Convention Referendum (PCCR) and provides modern-day case studies to enable you reach your own conclusions on the desirability of the PCCR.
The PCCR entails three popular votes that bypass a state legislature: whether to call a convention, who to elect as convention delegates, and whether to ratify a convention’s proposals. PCCR periods range from 10 to 20 years. The PCCR is currently in the constitutions of 14 U.S. states with a combined population of 88 million. By contrast, the 24 states with the ballot initiative have a combined population of 145 million.
The first half of this book covers PCCR’s democratic function and its structural-legal, intellectual, and political history. The second half of the book provides contemporary case studies of PCCR referendums in three states: Maryland, Alaska, and Rhode Island. Each case study focuses on a different aspect of contemporary PCCR politics. The Maryland case study focuses on the state legislature undermining PCCR as an institution, the Alaska case study focuses on the extraordinary amount of campaign spending per capita in Alaska compared to other U.S. states with any type of non-PCCR referendum on the ballot, and the Rhode Island case study focuses on campaign messaging strategies, including the proven template for defeating PCCR referendums.
An essential read for students and scholars of state and federal politics.
Editorial Reviews
Review
“Snider’s book is a rigorous, unsettling account of how the periodic constitutional convention referendum went from democratic cornerstone to democratic orphan, and what it would take to restore it. “
–Andy Moore, Executive Director, National Association of Nonpartisan Reformers
“Conventions were once called on a regular basis to revise the constitutions of the 50 states and enact significant governmental reforms. In this excellent book, J.H. Snider, the foremost expert on the topic, focuses on the automatic periodic constitutional convention referendum – tracing the origin and development of this institution, demonstrating its benefits and recommending some improvements, and also analyzing and drawing lessons from several recent referendum campaigns.”
–John Dinan, author of The American State Constitutional Tradition
“J. H. Snider has written a truly illuminating book about the most important single political idea of the last 400 years–popular sovereignty, This is a first-rate book in applied political theory that makes very clear the importance of truly popular conventions to the realization of genuine democracy. Political scientists will find especially interesting (and quite dismaying) the carefully developed case studies of several states that elaborate on the hurdles placed in the way of reviving an important aspect of America’s constitutional order. The book is especially timely as we consider the full implications of the Declaration and of Independence 250 years ago.”
–Sanford Levinson, University of Texas Law School and author of Framed: America’s 51 Constitutions and the Crisis of Governance
About the Author
J.H. Snider is the leading American expert on the intellectual history and politics of the Periodic Constitutional Convention Referendum and editor of The State Constitutional Convention Clearinghouse, with a focus on state-specific clearinghouses when a particular state has a Constitutional Convention Referendum on the ballot.
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