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In the United States, direct democracy experienced a major renewal in the 1970s. In California in particular, popular initiatives began to be used by citizens’ groups to mainstream already adopted federal measures to "clean up" politics at the state level. Two different visions of popular initiatives co-existed, advocated by very different citizens’ organizations, which made strange bedfellows in their alliance to promote the Political Reform Act of 1974: a progressive vision according to which popular initiatives must be used in case of a legislative impasse, and a populist vision which inherently promoted the use of popular initiatives, as elected officials were deemed unable to respond to citizens’ demands.