During Barack Obama’s two terms in office, Democrats lost ground at the state level—a lot of ground. Republicans now dominate state legislatures to a greater degree than at any time since the Civil War, making it nearly impossible for Democrats to enact any meaningful policies in large swaths of the country. But in the midst of last year’s electoral wipeout, there was one bright spot: Citizens took the law into their own hands, introducing 71 ballot initiatives in 16 states—the most in a decade.

In Maine, citizens used ballot initiatives to increase the minimum wage and tax the rich to fund public schools. In South Dakota, they pushed through campaign finance reforms and restrictions on lobbying, as well as a system to create public funding for political campaigns. In Oklahoma, they reined in the War on Drugs, reclassifying nearly all felony drug possession charges as misdemeanors. And in Nevada, they mandated background checks for gun sales. In each case, citizens used ballot initiatives as a tool for direct democracy, using majority rule to push through policies that lawmakers are unable or unwilling to enact themselves.

But such victories have proved short-lived. Republican legislatures responded to the surge in civic participation by using their power to effectively overrule the will of the people—and to make it harder to enact citizen-backed reforms in the future. In South Dakota, state lawmakers simply repealed the voter-approved limits on campaign contributions and lobbying. In Maine, the state legislature threw out the voter-approved tax on the rich, and amended the minimum wage increase to exclude workers who receive tips. The state’s GOP governor, Paul LePage, boasted that there is nothing to prevent lawmakers from tossing out any ballot initiative they dislike. “If you read the constitution,” he crowed, “the legislature can just ignore it.”

It’s true that in twelve states, including Maine, there are no restrictions against such “legislative tampering” with citizen initiatives. And there are sometimes good reasons for lawmakers to make adjustments to ballot measures, especially if voters use them to infringe upon the constitutional rights of minorities. Ballot initiatives aren’t exclusively progressive tools, after all. In the early 2000s, conservatives used them to ban same-sex marriage in a number of states.

But the principle of direct democracy is a hallmark of the U.S. political system, stemming from the earliest days of the country. Ballot initiatives picked up steam during the Progressive Era, as a means for voters to push through reforms in the face of inept and intransigent politicians. South Dakota became the first state to adopt a statewide initiative process in 1898, and many others soon followed.