House chambers. (SHNS)

IN HIS EXCELLENT report on how the November ballot is taking shape (“Yet again, legislative competition in Massachusetts will be woeful”), Chris Lisinski observes that there will be a record number of initiative petitions before us but few contested races for the state Legislature.

I’d suggest that this is less a study in contrasts – many ballot questions, few races – than a snapshot of correlates. When our reps and senators are not challenged and held accountable to us for their actions and inactions, they underperform. By all accounts, our state Legislature is one of – if not the – least transparent and least productive in the nation, and those awaiting policy leadership are forced to resort to signature gathering and initiative petitions to get things done.

Uncontested elections and the rise of citizen initiatives are two sides of the same coin, evidence of democracy in decline.

This is not just an abstract idea. I ran for the House 12 times, nine of them unopposed. In the three years I faced an opponent, I was tested, stretched, asked to account for my thoughts and actions. Voters took a measure of my efficacy – how well my voice and my vote advanced legislative and budget priorities – and had to decide who could better represent them on Beacon Hill.

In the nine election cycles without an opponent, voters and I had to do none of the above. Running unopposed was easier on the nerves, but not what democracy calls for. It served neither to sharpen my political skills nor to give me and my constituents the opportunity to test ideas together: The sounds of silence in place of democracy’s required deliberation and debate.

It is no stretch to assert that every initiative on the ballot this year, indeed most years, is a measure of the failure of our Legislature. They don’t act, so we do. Moreover, the House speaker and Senate president have stepped into the void that we the people have created. They can – and sadly do – demand loyalty and obedience, and have the power, including significant salary and pension enhancements, to reinforce those demands. Legislators report to them instead of to us.

In a democracy, we own both failures and successes. Lisinski has painted a sad and sadly accurate picture. It’s a picture of a failing Legislature. In the end, that failure is ours as well.

Jay Kaufman is a former Democratic state representative from Lexington.