In what specific, significant ways have voters tried to reshape the relationship between citizens and their representatives?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Varies. Many changes have also been brought through legislative action, but this question asks students to recognize the fundamental changes that voters have imposed on the elections system through the ballot box. The question presupposes an answer that includes the mention of ballot initiatives, but a less attentive student might supply a general answer that references the importance of imposing rules that influence legislators' behavior.
Specifically, although the initiative and referendum (instruments of direct democracy) were initially signed into law by Gov. Hiram Johnson during the Progressive Era in 1911, these processes have allowed citizens to assert their power by competing with and also overriding the legislature to make laws. The recall imposed the ultimate threat to elected officials by reminding them that they could be discharged from office should they anger voters with their actions, as the recall of Gray Davis (in 2003) shows.
Proposition 1A's professionalization of the legislature was intended to loosen the ties between legislators and lobbyists, and by implication, redirect their attention to public interests and thereby strengthen their connections with citizens. The success of the anti-tax measure, Proposition 13, reminded legislators that citizens were "in charge," and limited elected officials' ability to raise taxes without gathering supermajority support (though this is merely an indirect way of "controlling" legislators' behavior). Term limits (Proposition 140) established the rule that representatives could not make a career of legislative service, and sent the message that representatives could not be trusted with a long career. Other voter initiatives have targeted how public officials are elected: open primary elections, tested in 1998 with the blanket primary (but overturned by the Supreme Court), and the "Top-Two" primary election version, allow all voters to choose from among all nominees for office, a process that underlines representatives' obligations to all voters. The creation of a citizens' redistricting commission underscores citizens' distrust of politicians over their perceived ability to "control" electoral outcomes. Placing redistricting in an unelected board, subject to many layers of review, is expected to influence the type of person who is ultimately elected. Voters have hoped to secure representatives who reflect the overall ideological sentiments of their district, rather than the ideas of the most extreme members; implicitly, this would create a legislature more responsive to "average" people, who are not strong partisans.