Direct Democracy Rules

Andrea Silva is Associate Professor of Teaching in the Department of Political Science at the University of California, Riverside and coauthor of The Presidency and Immigration Policy: Rhetoric and Reality.

"Why are U.S. immigration politics such a mess? Andrea Silva's terrific new book helps answer this question, using immigration policy as a vehicle to explore the contours of 'immigration federalism.' She demonstrates that each U.S. state experiences federalism differently, and this is especially true for immigration policy. Direct democracy initiatives in particular allow policy entrepreneurs to experiment with immigration policy in ways that reveal the true muddled character of our political system. Silva shows that the racialized nature of immigration politics makes it particularly attractive for issue entrepreneurs to operate via direct democracy instruments. Silva's novel research demonstrates that there is not one immigration policy in the United States, but fifty-one. The vacuum left by federal immigration legislative failures in the last two decades has been filled by 50 state efforts, creating a patchwork of immigration federalism. This book is a unique exploration of the American political system in the 21st century, using immigration politics as the instrument of discovery." - Eric Juenke, co-author of The Presidency and Immigration Policy: Rhetoric and Reality "Democracy promises that the people rule, but Direct Democracy Rules reveals how profoundly the institutional rules themselves determine whether that promise holds. To better understand how immigration policy gets made in the United States, Silva expertly points us beyond the partisan battles of Washington D.C. and toward the states, where ballot initiatives and referendums have become powerful tools in shaping contests over driver's licenses and in-state tuition for undocumented immigrants. Rigorous and timely, this book forces a reckoning with what popular sovereignty really means for one of the most consequential policy debates of our time." - Emily M. Farris, co-author of The Power of the Badge Sheriffs and Inequality in the United States  "A timely and insightful analysis of American immigration enforcement. Shedding new light on the federal-state relationship in the administration of immigration legislation, Andrea Silva offers an historically informed analysis of the ever-evolving patchwork of enforcement policies. Silva's analysis of the motives that drive states and localities to craft their own immigration laws makes Direct Democracy Rules a must read for policy analysts." - Benjamin Marquez, author of The Politics of Patronage: Lawyers, Philanthropy, and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund "Direct Democracy Rules is a timely, compelling and deeply relevant book that bridges a diverse body of literature from Latiné/x politics, immigration law and policy, social movements, and state politics to examine the impact of political opportunity structures and strategic state actors on the use of direct democracy mechanisms that target immigrants in the U.S." - Anna Sampaio, author of Terrorizing Latina/o Immigrants: Race, Gender, and Immigration Politics in the Age of Security