{"id":13431,"date":"2011-04-26T00:08:43","date_gmt":"2011-04-26T00:08:43","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-04-26T00:08:43","modified_gmt":"2011-04-26T00:08:43","slug":"california-gets-another-closeup-as-legislature-returns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/2011\/04\/26\/california-gets-another-closeup-as-legislature-returns\/","title":{"rendered":"California Gets Another Close-up As Legislature Returns"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Photobucket\"<\/a>Well, the Legislature is back in session, just in time for another exposee of California governance, or lack thereof.  This time, it is the Economist magazine’s monthly headline.  So, yay!<\/p>\n

While the Economist looks at everything from an economic perspective first (uh…right…the title), they aren’t necessarily dogmatic.   Rather than simply joining the chorus of “man, California really sucks, their leaders are terrible,” they actually look for the root of the problem.  In their opening story of the section, they point the finger chiefly at the initiative system.<\/p>\n

This special report has shown how one of the three ingredients of direct democracy, the initiative process, has, cumulatively over the past three decades, caused much of the dysfunction that paralyses California whenever it suffers an economic shock, as it is doing at present. Does it follow that California must get rid of the initiative process?<\/p>\n

It is a moot question because Californian voters would never agree (in what itself would have to be an initiative) to end initiatives. Ronald George, California’s former chief justice, says that “people will never vote to give up their own power.” The best we can hope for is to make the process “less extreme”. (The Economist<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The entire series takes a serious look at where we are, how we get there, and how we get out of this situation.  Particularly, how we harness the power of direct democracy in a state of nearly 40 million people.  This is no easy question, and while it is easy to be glib, it is harder to get to real solutions.<\/p>\n

They do suggest some particular reforms, from emphasizing referenda over initiatives, to requiring a sunset of all initiative legislation.  These are all solid ideas, and I think you could get a majority of Californians to agree to many of them.  However, getting them on the ballot, in a hostile climate amongst consultants, with a fair bit of money coming from those who have used the system to hijack the apparatus of state?  Well, that’s more easily said than done.<\/p>\n

At any rate, while some of the particulars, which I’m going to try to take a greater look at this week, are slightly skewed, the report as a general is well-done and informative.  Take a look<\/a>, and hey, let me know what you catch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"Photobucket\"<\/a>Well, the Legislature is back in session, just in time for another exposee of California governance, or lack thereof.  This time, it is the Economist magazine’s monthly headline.  So, yay!<\/p>\n

While the Economist looks at everything from an economic perspective first (uh…right…the title), they aren’t necessarily dogmatic.   Rather than simply joining the chorus of “man, California really sucks, their leaders are terrible,” they actually look for the root of the problem.  In their opening story of the section, they point the finger chiefly at the initiative system.<\/p>\n

This special report has shown how one of the three ingredients of direct democracy, the initiative process, has, cumulatively over the past three decades, caused much of the dysfunction that paralyses California whenever it suffers an economic shock, as it is doing at present. Does it follow that California must get rid of the initiative process?<\/p>\n

It is a moot question because Californian voters would never agree (in what itself would have to be an initiative) to end initiatives. Ronald George, California’s former chief justice, says that “people will never vote to give up their own power.” The best we can hope for is to make the process “less extreme”. (The Economist<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The entire series takes a serious look at where we are, how we get there, and how we get out of this situation.  Particularly, how we harness the power of direct democracy in a state of nearly 40 million people.  This is no easy question, and while it is easy to be glib, it is harder to get to real solutions.<\/p>\n

They do suggest some particular reforms, from emphasizing referenda over initiatives, to requiring a sunset of all initiative legislation.  These are all solid ideas, and I think you could get a majority of Californians to agree to many of them.  However, getting them on the ballot, in a hostile climate amongst consultants, with a fair bit of money coming from those who have used the system to hijack the apparatus of state?  Well, that’s more easily said than done.<\/p>\n

At any rate, while some of the particulars, which I’m going to try to take a greater look at this week, are slightly skewed, the report as a general is well-done and informative.  Take a look<\/a>, and hey, let me know what you catch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[117],"tags":[422],"class_list":["post-13431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-117","tag-422"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Pvhz-3uD","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13431\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}