Excerpts from page 8 of the November 17, 2005 Background Paper to the California Joint Commission discussing a CID Ombudsman are well worth repeating:
It is extremely hard for a homeowner to challenge the rules under which they live, if they have been approved by the HOA, and the stakes for every homeowner can be very high.
CID boards of directors have the ability to limit a freedom which no counterpart for nearly any other kind of government authority – the liberty of an individual homeowner to use his own property.
While most people who get involved in political activity at the local level, state or federal level do so as an individual choice—and many decide not to make that choice – participation in an HOA [the governmental body of the CID] is a necessity of ownership in CIDs.
[I]t is clear that a substantial number of CID owners do not fully comprehend how powerful the terms in the CC&Rs, the HOA and its board of directors can be – and how critical it can be to them to be an active member.
My commentary can be found at: CA-Ombudsman
The complete Background paper can be found at CA_background
HOA Constitutional Government 