Our weekly program Making Democracy Work is a collaboration between KSMU Radio and the League of Women Voters of Southwest Missouri. It's hosted and produced by LWV volunteers, and it airs each Monday morning at 9:45 on KSMU.
In this episode of our local program Making Democracy Work, Michele Breshears speaks with Dr. Kevin Pybas, associate professor of political science at Missouri State University.
Breshears: Missouri's constitution is amended more often than many people realize. Voters often decide whether proposed changes should become part of the state's government document. So why do so many issues end up in the constitution, and what should voters consider when they're asked to amend it? Joining us today is Dr. Kevin Pybas, associate professor of political science at Missouri State University, to help us understand how constitutional amendments work and why these decisions can have lasting consequences. Dr. Pybas, let's start with the big picture. Missouri amends its constitution more often than many other states. Why is that and should voters think differently about changing the constitution than they do about passing a law?
Pybas: So in response to the question, why do so many issues in Missouri wind up as struggles or efforts to amend the constitution? A couple reasons. One is the state constitution is easy to amend, at least relative to other state constitutions, and also state constitutions are different than the U.S. Constitution. State constitutions deal with policy issues, and so sometimes to change policy, the state constitution has to be amended. Sometimes policy can be changed just through ordinary legislation. You pass a new law, you repeal an old law or you amend pass a law that amends an old law. It's a combination of those things. But Missouri's constitution is relatively easy to amend, at least compared to most other state constitutions.
Breshears: How should voters approach their decisions?
Pybas: Well, something codified in the constitution is different in that it's presumed to be more permanent and it's more difficult to change. I mean, you have to, you know, there are two processes to amend the constitution in Missouri. One, it can be initiated by the legislature. A simple majority vote in the state legislature can propose a constitutional amendment and then a simple majority vote by the voters or through the initiative process, which is pretty common as well. But I think some things in the constitution are considered the part of the fundamental organic instrument of government. And so, they're more permanent or presumed to be more permanent, even though, I mean, that's probably more true of the U.S. Constitution than state constitutions, particularly Missouri's constitution. The current one was adopted in 1945, and it's been amended 120-some-odd times, I think. And what's that — 76 years or so?
Breshears: So, to kind of wrap up, why should voters think beyond Election Day? And if an amendment passes, how difficult is it to change or remove later, and why should that matter to voters?
Pybas: Well, I think I think they should think about it a little differently because none of us know the future. So, if something is written into the constitution, that's largely the product or response to something that's just very current and contemporary. And circumstances can change. And so, the government might be — the state government might be hamstrung, and its ability to respond to change by a constitutional amendment, particularly the, you know, the effort in I think it's Amendment 6, that if that passes, it will make it a lot harder to change constitutional amendment or at least the voter driven initiative, constitutional amendments. But yeah, constitutional amendments, things again codified in the constitution are presumed to be more enduring and lasting and of a different character than ordinary legislation. But again, our history is of pretty frequent changes. So, I'm not sure that there is a culture or tradition here of thinking about constitutional amendments much differently than ordinary legislation.