WESTBROOK – Government is a reflection of man’s stupidity, greed, prejudice, as well as his intelligence, generosity, nobility — and the pendulum between these opposites will swing from time to time.

The architects of the U.S. government believed that a republic was the best system to control or dampen such swings.

The founders also believed that only a few citizens were qualified to choose those who would make the decisions of the republic — common people were easily swayed by fads, fashions and fears.

Their design did not prove immune to the stresses of an undreamed-of expansion of the nation, and it began to fray where some state legislatures developed dollar poisoning. In response, several states amended the republican design with a dose of direct democracy. They weakened their legislatures by giving voters the power to write laws themselves.

Hence, the initiative/referendum, which was spliced onto the Maine Constitution a bit over a century ago — a procedure whereby citizens could gather under the village oak to collectively discern the common will. It is a form of government that the Founding Fathers would have considered similar to a schoolhouse run by the students — or an asylum run by the inmates.

And they may have been right. Introduced with the best of intentions, this process has proven to be a medicine often worse than the illness.

In California and Colorado, it has proven destructive. In Maine, where it was rarely used for the first five decades of its existence, more frequently it has proven to be at best a mixed bag.

Worthwhile in rare cases, such as legislative term limits, it has been just as often counterproductive — and occasionally outright harmful, as in the case of competing casino proposals.

And what’s worse — it promises to get worse.

Paid signature gathering now bids fair to become a recognized profession. The idea and theory beyond this “people’s voice” procedure was that enough people would be motivated to act on their own — not that sales agents would be paid by often vaguely identified sponsors.

In the second phase — persuasion prior to voting — the referendum has become subject to debasement by the tube.

John F. Kennedy taught America that TV was the new cook in the political kitchen. And that was a half-century ago. Today, it has become the 800-pound gorilla.

With sufficiently deep pockets, sponsors can convince people that night air is bad, that Budweiser tastes better or that same-sex marriage will lead to bestiality.

For example, due largely to the money spent by a religious organization, a groundbreaking same-sex marriage law was overturned by referendum, and the Maine citizens who did not share that religion were denied their freedom of choice.

However, the procedure is immortal; the idea of initiative/referendum has flown on gossamer wings of political oratory and newspaper flatulence long enough to become beyond respectable. It now ranks next to God and motherhood in the pantheon of untouchables. Like Sinbad’s Old Man of the Sea, it is a burden forever.

But it can be improved.

Maine should establish at least four rules concerning its use:

• Require reporting of all expenditures — along with the sponsors — within 24 hours.

• Forbid any payments for signature collectors, a favorite tactic of special interests with money.

• Deny signature collectors access to the polls, where they not only annoy but also confuse many voters.

• Require a minimum voter turnout, perhaps half of the registered voters — a not unreasonable figure for the writing of law that will affect everyone.

All of these recommendations can be engraved in law by simple legislation, except perhaps the last, which may not pass constitutional muster — but at least it deserves a try.

Direct democracy is apt to crush the interests of a minority. It corrupts the “guarantee clause” in Article IV of the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees the states “a republican form of government” and, as Madison argued in the Federalist Papers, it fails to provide a barrier between the passions of the popular will and sober governance of the nation.

Rule by the rabble is a medicine far too dangerous to be taken without prescription.

Rodney S. Quinn of Westbrook is a former Maine secretary of state and a teacher of history and politics.