The California Republic

Institutions, Statesmanship, and Policies

Edited by Brian P. Janiskee, Ken Masugi

Not available to order

Publication date:

09 December 2003

Length of book:

368 pages

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

ISBN-13: 9780742572379

Even before its budget crisis and recall election, California held a unique position in the United States. Often lauded as having the fifth largest economy in the world, California leads the nation in other measures as well, particularly cultural and political trends. But were it an independent state, it would have one of the world's most unusual democracies. In The California Republic Brian P. Janiskee and Ken Masugi bring together a diverse group of contributors to shed light on the Progressive nature of California government. In addition to thorough treatment of perennial issues like affirmative action, gun control, and education, the work goes outside the conventional understanding of political issues to examine such topics as the Hollywood western, the electronic media, and California's revolutionary founding. Accordingly, the contributors include not only political scientists and historians, but journalists and political activists as well. The result is a clear exploration of the evolution of Progressive government in California and its contemporary policy consequences.

Chapter 1 Preface
Chapter 2 Introduction: Republican Government in California
Chapter 3 California in a Federal System
Chapter 4 Popular Sovereignty, the Right of Revolution, and California Statehood
Chapter 5 Nature and Convention in the Creation of the 1849 California Constitution
Chapter 6 California and the Seventeenth Amendment
Chapter 7 Californians and Their Constitution: Progressivism, Direct Democracy, and the Administrative State
Chapter 8 Institutions
Chapter 9 Broken Promise: The Rise and Fall of the California Legislature
Chapter 10 No Allegiance but to the State: California Governors Hiram Johnson and Gray Davis
Chapter 11 The Progressive Court
Chapter 12 The Elections of 2002: Clear Cut or Ambiguous?
Chapter 13 Local Government
Chapter 14 The Problem of Local Government in California
Chapter 15 Local Government Finance in California
Chapter 16 The California Tax Revolt
Chapter 17 Statesmanship
Chapter 18 Armageddon in the West: California's Hiram Johnson
Chapter 19 Nixon, California, and American Politics
Chapter 20 Ronald Reagan and the Transformation of Modern California
Chapter 21 Policies and Perspectives
Chapter 22 Affirmative Action and Proposition 209
Chapter 23 Western Justice: John Ford and Sam Peckinpah on the Defense of the Heroic
Chapter 24 California Farming in a Classical Context
Chapter 25 The Politics of California Public Education
Chapter 26 The Least Secure Right: Privately Owned Firearms in California
Chapter 27 California's Political Mass Media
Chapter 28 An EPIC Legacy
Chapter 29 Water, Water Everywhere and Nary a Drop to Drink

California even now—when the supposed legatees of Progressivism denounce the idea of a gubernatorial recall—remains the land of golden promise, the Eureka! state. But its citizens, its leaders, its students, its observers sorely need a sober rendering of its history and its institutions. Brian P. Janiskee and Ken Masugi have delivered. If you care at all about the direction of this loveliest of states, then this book is critical to your understanding of a perplexing and wonderful land....