For many years, commentators have questioned whether direct citizen lawmaking is consistent with the “republican form of government” as the framers used that term in Article IV, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution.  This is the first legal commentary to address the full range of evidence on the subject, including the classical and secondary-source writings that informed the framers’ understanding of the term “republic.”  The author concludes that, whether or not the framers would have liked citizen lawmaking, they clearly would have acknowledged that it is consistent with the republican form of government.