Given the role that initiatives and referenda have played in state and local governance, it is interesting that there has never been a national initiative or referendum in the United States. The reason for this is that the Constitution of the United States does not provide for direct citizen initiation of, or direct popular votes on, either statutes or constitutional amendments. Discussion of why there is no provision for national processes of initiative or referendum and whether there should be such a provision leads inevitably to a discussion of questions about democracy and representation. In addition to supplying background on the formative debate concerning those issues and to tracing a history of the democratic impulse as it relates to the issue of national initiative and referendum, the pamphlet presents various contemporary points of view as well as arguments for, and arguments against, a national initiative and referendum process. (BZ)