Table 1 | Annotated Timeline of Statewide Direct Democracy in the United States

Timeline of important events in the expansion of direct democracy in the United States. Direct democracy adoption boomed in the early 1900s, particularly among states in the West, after years of foundational work stretching back as early as the 1600s. A smaller second wave of states expanding direct democracy access began in 1956 with Alaska, which included initiatives and referenda as foundational elements in its constitution. The last state of this second wave was Mississippi, which adopted the initiative process in 1992, though the state then suspended this process in 2021.
*Today, every state but Delaware requires voters to approve constitutional amendments.
**Mississippi technically adopted I&R for the first time in 1914, but it was invalidated by the state supreme court in 1922. The court halted the state’s initiative process again in 2021.
***Though 26 states and DC provide for some form of statewide direct democracy, two states—New Mexico and Maryland—allow only referenda; Mississippi’s initiative process is currently suspended; and the processes in Wyoming and Illinois are so limited and difficult to use that they are often not considered initiative states at all.
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