California Politics and Government
California Votes: The 2010 Governor’s Race
Ethan Rarick, editor | $24.95 | Order Now!
California voters went back to the future in 2010, picking Jerry Brown as their governor more than 35 years after they first elected him to the office. Brown’s election to a third term capped an extraordinary career and life—son of a political dynasty, boy-wonder governor, three-time presidential candidate, volunteer for Mother Teresa, student of Zen Buddhism, radio talk-show host, big-city mayor, and then back to governor for another tenure, this time in his seventies.
Brown’s victory also followed an extraordinary campaign. With a shoestring budget and a skeleton staff, the aging Democratic warhorse defeated a billionaire Republican opponent who poured $144 million of her own money into a year-long advertising blitz overseen by a vast army of well-heeled political consultants. Meg Whitman broke the American record for a self-funded political campaign, but ended up with less than 41 percent of the vote.
Here is the story of that extraordinary campaign—the backroom strategies, the outrageous scandals, the astonishing amounts of money. California Votes tells the tale through the words of the campaign managers who made the decisions, the political pros who followed the action, the pollsters who tracked voter moods, the journalists who wrote about it all, and the scholars who studied the outcome.
California voters made political history in 2010. California Votes is the inside story of how and why they did it.
The People’s University: A History of the California State University
Donald R. Gerth | $35 | Order now!
Since its founding as a single institution in San Francisco in the years after the Gold Rush, the California State University has grown into a system of 23 campuses that enroll more than 450,000 students. The People’s University is the story of that extraordinary growth. Today, the California State University is the state’s 1,000-mile campus. Its programs reach every corner of the state, and its mission of access, affordability, and quality touches countless people of all ages.
California's Golden Years: When Government Worked and Why
William T. Bagley | $24.95 | Order now!
"Politics is personal," Bill Bagley likes to say, and here is a personal journey through the politics of America's most extraordinary state. California's Golden Years offers tales of cash-filled envelopes, all-night poker games, and all the free liquor a legislator could drink. But the stories and anecdotes offer more than mere fun - they illuminate a larger lesson learned during Bagley's 14 years in the California Legislature. Personal relationships are, in Bagley's view, the glue that ensures working relationships and pragmatic compromises. "Those who play together," he writes, "say together." Today, as the Golden State faces unprecedented challenges, California's Golden Years provides both a look back toward a fondly remembered era and an insider's explanation for why politics seemed to work better then than now.
California in the Balance: Why Budgets Matter
John Decker | $24.95 | Order now!
Why is California broke? California in the Balance offers a precise analysis of the Golden State's fiscal condition - from the process used to write the state budget to the reasons for chronic deficits to the possible paths to stability. Here are the details of California's financial woes, laid out step-by-step by one of the state's leading budgetary experts. In a book recommended by both Republicans and Democrats, John Decker makes plain his extraordinary knowledge of California's budget. With a foreword by California Treasurer Bill Lockyer.
After the Tax Revolt: California's Proposition 13 Turns Thirty
Jack Citrin and Isaac William Martin, editors | $24.95 | Order now!
In 1978 California voters shocked the political world by approving Proposition 13, a strict limit on local property tax rates. No state had ever approved such a far-reaching constitutional limitation of the power to tax. And Californians did not just approve it; they embraced it, rejecting dire warnings of doomsday from the state's political, business, and academic leaders. Voter turnout was the highest recorded for any off-year election in the history of California and the tax cut won in a landslide, with 65% of the vote. Thirty years later, Proposition 13 remains firmly entrenched in California's constitution, but what has it meant for politics and public policy in the state?
On June 6, 2008, the thirtieth anniversary of the adoption of Proposition 13, a group of scholars, journalists, and policy experts gathered to assess the legacy of this groundbreaking measure. Their mandate was a simple one: assess what we have learned about the political, economic, and fiscal consequences of Proposition 13 over the last 30 years.
After the Tax Revolt: California's Proposition 13 Turns 30 is a result of that conference and an attempt to summarize the state of our knowledge about the consequences of this critical event in the history of California and the United States. This collection of essays constitutes a cutting-edge and timely review of one of the most important reforms in California history, and will be crucial for anyone trying to gain a full understanding of politics and policy in the Golden State.
Racial and Ethnic Politics in California: Continuity and Change (Volume Three)
Bruce E. Cain and Sandra Bass, editors | $24.95 | Order now!
California often leads the nation forward. From the tax revolts of the 1970s to the digital revolution of the 1990s, America's largest state has become the proving ground of the national future. Today, California is again showing the way, this time toward a rich diversity that is already spreading to the rest of the nation. By 2000, California had become the first large state to have a majority of nonwhite residents. Texas has since followed, and today a variety of states across the nation are approaching that benchmark: Arizona, Georgia, Maryland, Mississippi, New York.
How does California's extraordinary diversity affect its politics? The essays collected in this volume examine many of the crucial issues that spring from California's changing demographics. What are the fundamental trends underlying the changes? How is a changing population affecting political behavior and participation? What is the interplay between increasing minority communities and California's cherished initiative process? What about the impact on organized labor?
These questions and others are examined by many of the state's leading scholars in Racial and Ethnic Politics in California: Continuity and Change. The lessons learned are important not only in the Golden State. Almost one in every eight Americans now lives in California; such sheer demographic bulk ensures that the state cannot be ignored.
As editors Bruce Cain and Sandra Bass note in their introduction, "The demographic die has been cast." Extraordinary diversity is the coming reality. This important book helps us to understand the political impacts and realities of that change, both in the laboratory of tomorrow — California — and across the United States.
Racial and Ethnic Politics in California, Vol. Two
Michael B. Preston, Bruce E. Cain, and Sandra Bass, editors | $14.26 | Order now!
California is America’s first majority minority state, and racial and ethnic voters are reshaping the state’s politics. This ground-breaking book, the leading text in the field, examines these changes and their political impact. Few texts address these difficult questions, and none does it as well as this. Bruce Cain, Franklin Gilliam, Don Nakanishi, Harry Pachon, Michael Preston, Jaime Regalado, Fernando Guerra, Sandra Bass, Leland Saito, and Raphael Sonnenshein write about Latino politics and empowerment, the growing Asian vote, affirmative action, transnational political identity, immigration, and political incorporation.
The New Political Geography of California
Frédérick Douzet, Thad Kousser, and Kenneth P. Miller, editors | $24.95 | Order now!
In many ways, recent developments in California politics can be understood best through geography. The formal rules of American politics — such as district-based elections and the Electoral College — make geography crucial to the political process. Where voters live is in many ways as important as how they behave. In recent decades, California's political map has changed dramatically as the state's fast-growing population has divided along racial, ethnic, economic, religious, and cultural lines. Most notably at the statewide level, these trends have caused California's traditional North-South partisan divide to be surpassed by an emerging East-West divide. In this new alignment, the state's densely populated coastal region has become increasingly Democratic, while the less-populated but fast-growing interior has become increasingly Republican. At the same time, demographic segregation within regions has also had important political consequences.
This volume, a unique collaboration by scholars from the United States and France, offers a range of perspectives on California's changing political geography. Introductory essays discuss recent statewide trends, including the population shifts that have contributed to California's emerging East-West partisan divide. The book's second section offers portraits of the changing political geography of specific regions, including Los Angeles, San Diego, Oakland, and the San Joaquin Valley. Finally, a series of essays analyzes the interaction between geography and the state's political institutions. Topics in this section include geography's influence on the political career of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, two-party competition in the state, the law and politics of redistricting, and conflicts between local and state government.
The New Political Geography of California provides fresh insights into the political dynamics of the Golden State, and potential lessons for other democratic jurisdictions adapting to rapid demographic change.
Governing California:
Politics, Government, and Public Policy in the Golden State
Gerald C. Lubenow, editor | $24.95 | Order now!
Diversity and change are hallmarks of California political life, and the changes often chart new paths for other states to follow. California blazed a trail to direct democracy, personal politics, disdain for parties, professional campaign consultants, huge campaign budgets, and modern media techniques. This book explains how this diverse, entrepreneurial, and individualistic collection of people functions politically, how its most important institutions of government operate, and how it makes public policy. There are surprisingly few good books on California politics and government. Our goal is to give students and interested observers of state politics and government an analytical and interpretive overview of the machinery of state government, the pivotal issues that dominate political discourse, and the primary interest groups that play off one another in the ebb and flow of political life.
Win the Right Way: How to Run Effective Local Campaigns in California
Christine Trost and Matt Grossmann | Out of print | Free PDF download
Candidates don't have to sling mud to win. This state-of-the-art guide combines the latest research on voter attitudes from UC Berkeley's Center for Campaign Leadership with advice from leading campaign strategists on how to run clean, honest, effective campaigns for public office in California. Rather than echo the conventional wisdom that negative campaigning works, this guide shows candidates how to plan a campaign, build an effective organization, develop and deliver a clear and compelling message, and mobilize voters on election day-all in a way that promotes public trust in both the candidates and the offices they seek.
California Votes: The 2006 Governor's Race
Ethan Rarick, editor | $24.95 | Order now!
In November of 2005, California voters were ready to terminate Arnold Schwarzenegger as a politician. The state was headed in the wrong direction, Californians told pollsters, and they didn't want to reelect their Hollywood governor. The two most likely Democratic challengers held leads over Schwarzenegger, who had just endured a terrible thrashing in a special election he had called. After less than two years in office, it seemed the political career of Arnold Schwarzenegger was an experiment gone wrong.
Yet just a year later, Schwarzenegger swept to victory, carrying 52 of the state's 58 counties and winning reelection by more than a million-and-a-half votes. Here is the story of that dramatic turnaround, told mostly in the words of California's top political insiders. We learn about the strategies and the ideas behind Schwarzenegger's rejuvenation, but also about the two Democrats who sought to take his job: Treasurer Phil Angelides and Controller Steve Westly. In separate chapters, some of California's leading political scholars dissect the underlying political structure of the state, while top pollsters describe the mood of the voters before, during, and after the campaign.
California is home to one out of every eight Americans, and California gubernatorial campaigns are the nation's second most important and dynamic political races, behind only those for the presidency. Add to that the global celebrity of Arnold Schwarzenegger, and it has become essential that anyone who wants to understand American politics must understand California politics. Here is an insider's peek into that world, direct from the men and women who made the decisions that affected the outcome of one of the most-watched American political campaigns in years.
California Votes: The 2002 Governor's Race & The Recall That Made History
Gerald C. Lubenow, editor | $24.95 | Order now!
As the effort to recall Governor Gray Davis swirled toward the polls in the spring of 2003, the IGS publications staff was just putting the finishing touches on the definitive account of his election in the autumn of 2002. Every four years since 1990, the Institute of Governmental Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, has assembled the key players in the governor's race-campaign managers and consultants, pollsters and political operatives, money people and the media- to assess what really happened.
But, as our editing progressed, so did the recall effort. And about the time we were ready to send the book to press, it became clear that the recall would reach the ballot and, quite possibly, undo the results of the election. We decided to hold up publication and include the recall as the final chapters in the book. The result is a publication as unique as the recall itself: a book that combines an in-depth look at the 2002 election that put Gray Davis in the governorship with a behind-the-scenes analysis of the recall election that plucked him from office less than a year later.
This volume, the latest on the quadrennial gatherings that draw what one reporter called "the innermost of California's political insiders," details the planning behind Davis's preemptive strike that took Richard Riordan out in the Republican primary, and the dynamics of his hairsbreadth victory over Bill Simon in the general election. And here, too, is a compelling first-person narrative of the angry groundswell that drove him from office. Reading the two in juxtaposition, one is struck by a sense that the recall's success and Davis's failure were almost an inevitable climax to the election of 2002.
As IGS Director Bruce Cain observed, "We've discovered that with the passage of time people tend to be more willing to speak frankly about the reasons why they did what they did in the heat of the battle, and we have learned a lot of extraordinary things about how decisions are made." The verbatim transcripts and expert commentary published here will serve as a text for students of politics, a must read for political junkies, and a handbook for the next election.
California Votes -- The 1998 Governor's Race: An Inside Look at the Candidates and Their Campaigns
Gerald C. Lubenow, editor | $21.95 | Order now!
This series--with companion volumes on the 1990 and 1994 races--is the
insiders’ guide to California politics. Following each of the past
three California governor's races, the key players came to Berkeley to
review and critique the strategy and tactics of the race. In two days
of brutally candid discussion, they examine every aspect of the race.
An edited transcript of these discussions, with commentary and analysis
by the leading political journalists, scholars, and party operatives,
provides an extraordinary look behind the scenes of a major campaign.
"California Votes is a tribute to democracy."--Pete Wilson, Former Governor of California
"New insight into the reasoning behind strategic decisions from the winners and losers."-- The Political Hotline
"A unique and path-breaking account of the politics of California, with
lessons of importance for this state and other large states and,
indeed, for national campaigns."--Eugene C. Lee, Professor Emeritus, UC
Berkeley; Director of IGS, 1968-88
"Politics as seen by the innermost of California's political insiders."--Bill Stall, Los Angeles Times
California Votes--The 1994 Governor's Race: An Inside Look at the Candidates and Their Campaigns
Gerald C. Lubenow, ed., *OUT OF PRINT
California Votes -- The 1990 Governor's Race: An Inside Look at the Candidates and Their Campaigns
Gerald C. Lubenow, ed., *OUT OF PRINT
Latinos and Public Policy in California: An Agenda for Opportunity
David Lopez and Andres Jimenez, editors | $24.95 | Order now!
Despite California's Mexican origins, the Mexican/Latino presence represented no more than three percent of the state's population at the beginning of the 20th century. While this presence grew slowly but steadily during the state's postwar population boom, in the last three decades of the 20th century Latinos emerged as the most dynamic sector of the state's population. In the 1990s Latinos accounted for 85 percent of all population growth in the state. Currently Latinos are one-third of the population and the largest ethnic group among the state's school children. If these demographic trends continue, Latinos will become the absolute majority of the state's population before the middle of this century.
California's future is inextricably intertwined with the fate of its burgeoning Latino population. Despite their growing social and political presence, Latinos as a whole still constitute less than 20 percent of the electorate, possess a smaller share of wealth relative to other groups, and lag significantly behind other groups in educational attainment. These disparities are likely to persist into the foreseeable future and to frame statewide policy debates on opportunity and access.
The UC Latino Policy Institute commissioned this volume to examine the effects of the growing Latino population on the state's policy agenda. In a series of 11 topical chapters, contributors from a variety of disciplines review the status of California Latinos in areas such as education, health-care access, housing, the criminal justice system, economic opportunity, and political participation. The authors recommend policy approaches to enhance opportunities, improve service delivery, and make best or more efficient use of public resources. The UC Latino Policy Institute is administered by the California Policy Research Center, University of California Office of the President, and receives funding from the University of California Committee on Latino Research.
The Third House: Lobbyists, Money, and Power in Sacramento
Jay Michael and Dan Walters with Dan Weintraub | $14.95 | Order now!
Unlike the sanitized version in civics texts, this book provides a savvy, sophisticated look at how laws are really made. It profiles colorful characters like Artie Samish and Jesse 'Big Daddy' Unruh, big money conflicts over horse racing and Indian casinos, and the clash of public and private interests over issues from insurance to health care and beyond. The authors are Jay Michael, one of the state's most experienced lobbyists, and Dan Walters, the capitol's premier columnist.
Making Government Work:
California Cases in Policy, Politics, and Public Management
Barry Keene, editor | $21.95 | Order now!
Shaping public policy in a huge, diverse state like California is seldom easy. Those who hold political power can rarely wield it without restraint. There are political rivals, opposing interest groups, and wavering allies. Making Government Work teaches how to achieve public policy goals by thinking and acting politically.
The cases are political fables--stories with a lesson. They teach the skills and techniques that make government work. This book is a collaboration between the IGS and the Center for California State Studies at CSU, Sacramento.
Constitutional Reform in California:
Making State Government More Effective and Responsive
Bruce E. Cain and Roger G. Noll, Editors | $24.95 | Order now!
California’s Constitutional Revision Commission assembled the state's leading scholars to investigate how the structure of the constitution affects state and local government. Their proposals for far-reaching and innovative reform incorporate ideas from across the political spectrum and form a benchmark for future debate about California governance.
The Speaker's Electoral Connection: Willie Brown and the California Assembly
Richard A. Clucas | $14.95 | Order Now!
Legislative leaders now have as one of their principal jobs raising funds for their party's legislative candidates. None mastered the art of campaign finance like Willie Brown of California, the subject of Richard A. Clucas's groundbreaking contribution to our knowledge of legislative leadership. Theoretically based, methodically analyzed, and cogently argued." -- Alan Rosenthal, Professor of Public Policy, Rutgers University
Prison Population and Criminal Justice Policy in California
Franklin E. Zimring and Gordon Hawkins | $9.95 | Order Now!
In the late eightes, a series of blue-ribbon studies urged a massive prison-building program to accommodate huge projected increases in the state prison population. Zimring and Hawkins show that the booming prison population reflects a change in policy rather than an increase in crime and suggest innovative ways to reduce the prison population.
