Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action - Reason Foundation

20(stating that race is the special concern of the FourteenthAmendment).Too often in American history political bosseshave been able to operate a racial and ethnic spoilssystem at the local level and sometimes at higherlevels too. See Steven P. Erie, RAINBOW’S END:IRISH AMERICANS AND THE DILEMMAS OF URBANMACHINE POLITICS, 1840-1985 (1990). The EqualProtection Clause, at least as it was interpretedthen, was often insufficient to put them under control.Instead, reforms of these urban political machineswere often imposed from the state level.See, e.g., Michael H. Ebner & Eugene M. Tobin,eds., THE AGE OF URBAN REFORM:NEW PERSPEC-TIVES ON THE PROGRESSIVE ERA (1977). MCRI fitsinto this tradition.Michigan is surely a large polity within themeaning of Federalist No. 10; the University ofMichigan is a small one. It is worth pointing outthat Michigan has roughly twice the population todaythat the United States had in 1790. Special interestscan dominate in Michigan’s numerous citycouncils, faculty senates, county boards and administrativeagencies, but they cannot dominate the initiativeprocess except with great effort—greaterthan that necessary to dominate the legislature.As a result, the process has functioned for a centuryas a useful counterweight to the considerablepower of elected and appointed public officials.One of the virtues of the process is the fact itcannot be easily or quickly employed, and hence isdifficult to enlist in the cause of passion or parochialinterest. According to the Initiative and ReferendumInstitute at the University of Southern Cali-