Download or read book California Crackup written by Joe Mathews and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2010 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "California Crackup is brilliant. It cuts through the familiar tangle of diagnoses and quick-fix solutions to provide a comprehensive and persuasive analysis of California's dysfunctional governmental system. Paul and Mathews have coolly laid out a complicated story, made it readable, sometimes even comedic. It is the best discussion of the issue I've seen in over three decades."--Peter Schrag, author of California: America's High-Stakes Experiment "I know of no other work that combines so succinctly and enjoyably a historical summary of California's existing problems with such a sweeping and provocative program of reform."--Ethan Rarick, University of California, Berkeley "Mark Paul and Joe Mathews have produced an indispensable guide to California's crisis of governance--and they have done so with humor, scholarship, fairness and storytelling verve. Every Californian should read this book."--Steve Coll, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Ghost Wars "Mark Paul... has a talent for presenting California Big Think stuff in an easily accessible and always readable way...[offering] clear and creative insights on the subject of California's collapse."--CalBuzz "Joe Mathews has done an artful, fascinating, and convincing job of connecting the California of today's Schwarzenegger era to the long history that made his rise possible.--James Fallows,The Atlantic Monthly on Mathews' book, The People's Machine
Download or read book California Crackup written by Joe Mathews and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2010-08-04 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is California beyond repair? A sizable number of Golden State citizens have concluded that it is. Incessant budget crises plus a government paralyzed by partisan gridlock have led to demands for reform, even a constitutional convention. But what, exactly, is wrong and how can we fix it? In California Crackup, Joe Mathews and Mark Paul provide clear and informed answers. Their fast-paced and often humorous narrative deftly exposes the constitutional origins of our current political and economic problems and furnishes a uniquely California fix: innovative solutions that allow Californians to debate their choices, settle on the best ones, hold elected officials accountable for results, and choose anew if something doesn’t work.
Download or read book Crackup written by Samuel L. Popkin and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In 2016, a businessman so discredited that he could no longer get a casino license or borrow money from an American bank was elected President of the United States of America. How did this happen? It is easy to mock and ridicule Donald Trump as if he is the problem. In fact, he is a symptom of a much larger issue that has been bedeviling the GOP for nearly two decades: an intraparty crackup of massive proportions. By "crackup," I mean a breakdown of the fragile alliances between coalitions within a party that prevents its leaders from developing goals they can deliver on when they control the White House and majorities in the House and Senate. This introductory chapter explains why party crackups are inevitable in a federal system with national money and local primaries. But this is the first time -- for either party - that no group within the party could create a synthesis of old orthodoxies and new realities that altered the party's direction enough to build a new consensus"--
Download or read book State of Resistance written by Manuel Pastor and published by The New Press. This book was released on 2018-04-03 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Concise, clear and convincing. . . a vision for the country as a whole.” —James Fallows, The New York Times Book Review A leading sociologist's brilliant and revelatory argument that the future of politics, work, immigration, and more may be found in California Once upon a time, any mention of California triggered unpleasant reminders of Ronald Reagan and right-wing tax revolts, ballot propositions targeting undocumented immigrants, and racist policing that sparked two of the nation's most devastating riots. In fact, California confronted many of the challenges the rest of the country faces now—decades before the rest of us. Today, California is leading the way on addressing climate change, low-wage work, immigrant integration, overincarceration, and more. As white residents became a minority and job loss drove economic uncertainty, California had its own Trump moment twenty-five years ago, but has become increasingly blue over each of the last seven presidential elections. How did the Golden State manage to emerge from its unsavory past to become a bellwether for the rest of the country? Thirty years after Mike Davis's hellish depiction of California in City of Quartz, the award-winning sociologist Manuel Pastor guides us through a new and improved California, complete with lessons that the nation should heed. Inspiring and expertly researched, State of Resistance makes the case for honestly engaging racial anxiety in order to address our true economic and generational challenges, a renewed commitment to public investments, the cultivation of social movements and community organizing, and more.
Download or read book The Crack Up written by F. Scott Fitzgerald and published by New Directions Publishing. This book was released on 2009-02-27 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A self-portrait of a great writer 's rise and fall, intensely personal and etched with Fitzgerald's signature blend of romance and realism. The Crack-Up tells the story of Fitzgerald's sudden descent at the age of thirty-nine from glamorous success to empty despair, and his determined recovery. Compiled and edited by Edmund Wilson shortly after F. Scott Fitzgerald's death, this revealing collection of his essays—as well as letters to and from Gertrude Stein, Edith Wharton, T.S. Eliot, John Dos Passos—tells of a man with charm and talent to burn, whose gaiety and genius made him a living symbol of the Jazz Age, and whose recklessness brought him grief and loss. "Fitzgerald's physical and spiritual exhaustion is described brilliantly," noted The New York Review of Books: "the essays are amazing for the candor."
Download or read book Crack Up Comics Collection An AFK Book Bendy written by Vannotes and published by Scholastic Inc.. This book was released on 2020-09-01 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of vintage 1930s-1940s Bendy comic strips is a must-have for those wanting to peek into the silly, scary world of Bendy and his friends! For those dying to know more about the simple, darkly funny cartoons produced at Joey Drew Studios, look no further than this illustrated collection of comics based on the exploits of Bendy, Boris the Wolf, Alice Angel, and all their friends! This collection of vintage comic strip adaptations brings to life the best of the many cartoon features produced by Joey Drew Studios. Fans of all ages won't want to miss this never-before-published romp that brings to life the world of Bendy!
Download or read book California written by David G. Lawrence and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2023-08-15 with total page 374 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: California: The Politics of Diversity examines the diverse and hyperpluralistic nature of California and its people. No other textbook on California politics offers as much coverage and in-depth analysis of the state's political development, institutions, and public policies that have shaped the Golden State into what it is today.
Download or read book The Best Job in Politics Exploring How Governors Succeed as Policy Leaders written by Alan Rosenthal and published by CQ Press. This book was released on 2013 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Governors - both in, and now out of, office - see the job as the best in politics. Why is that? This title shows students how and why governors succeed as policy leaders and makes a case as to why some governors are better at leveraging the institutional advantages of the office.
Download or read book The People s Machine written by Joe Mathews and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2006-08-08 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: California voters passed Proposition 13 in 1978. At the same time, a champion bodybuilder named Arnold Schwarzenegger was becoming a movie star. Over the past quarter century, the twin arts of direct democracy (through ballot initiatives designed to push the public to the polls on election day) and blockbuster moviemaking (through movies designed to push the public to the theaters on opening weekend) grew up together, at home in California. With the state's recall election in 2003, direct democracy and blockbuster movies officially merged. The result: Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. In The People's Machine, political reporter Joe Mathews, who covered Schwarzenegger's gubernatorial campaign for the Los Angeles Times and who has subsequently broken many front page stories about him, traces the roots of both movie and political populism, how Schwarzenegger used these twin forces to win election and, especially, how he has used them to govern. "Let the people decide," said Governor Schwarzenegger after his inauguration. The People's Machine, through remarkable access and whip-smart analysis -- there is news in this book -- reports on whether this system of governing proves blessing, curse, or mess, and on the remarkable Austrian bodybuilder, movie star, and political man with the nerve to carry it out.
Download or read book The Leadership Capital Index written by Mark Bennister and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017-05-26 with total page 323 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Leadership Capital Index develops a conceptual framework of leadership capital and a diagnostic tool - the Leadership Capital Index (LCI) - to measure and evaluate the fluctuating nature of the leadership capital of leaders. Differing amounts of leadership capital, a combination of skills, relations and reputation, allow leaders to succeed or bring about their failure. This book brings together leading international scholars in the field to engage with the concept of 'leadership capital' and use and apply the LCI to a variety of comparative case studies. The book provides an important, timely, and innovative contribution to the now flourishing academic discipline of political leadership studies. The LCI offers a comprehensive yet parsimonious and easily applicable 10 point matrix to examine leadership authority over time and in different political contexts. In each case, leaders 'spend' and put their 'stock' of authority and support at risk. United States president Lyndon Johnson arm-twisting Congress to put into effect civil rights legislation; Tony Blair taking the United Kingdom into the invasion of Iraq; Angela Merkel committing Germany to a generous reception of refugees: all 'spent capital' to forge public policy they believed in. The volume examines how office-holders acquire, consolidate, risk, and lose such capital, and concentrates predominantly on elected 'chief executives' at the national level, including majoritarian and consensus systems, multiple and singular cases, and also examines some presidential and sub-national cases. The Leadership Capital Index is an exploratory volume, with chapters providing a series of plausibility probes to see how the LCI framework 'performs' as a descriptive and analytical tool.
Download or read book Who Decides written by Jeffrey S. Sutton and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021-10-04 with total page 497 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A unique defense of Federalism, making the case that constitutional law in America--encompassing the systems of all 51 governments--should have a role in assessing the right balance of power among all branches of our state and federal governments. Everything in law and politics, including individual rights, comes back to divisions of power and the evergreen question: Who decides? Who wins the disputes of the day often turns on who decides them. And our acceptance of the resolution of those disputes often turns on who the decision maker is-because it reveals who governs us. In Who Decides, the influential US Appellate Court Judge Jeffrey S. Sutton focuses on the constitutional structure of the American states to answer the question of who should decide the key questions of public policy today. By concentrating on the role of governmental structure in shaping power across the 50 American states, Sutton develops a powerful explanation of American constitutional law, in all of its variety, as opposed to just federal constitutional law. As in his earlier book, 51 Imperfect Solutions, which looked at how American federalism allowed the states to serve as laboratories of innovation for protecting individual liberty and property rights, Sutton compares state-level governments with the federal government and draws numerous insights from the comparisons. Instead of focusing on individual rights, however, he focuses on structure, while continuing to develop some of the core themes of his previous book. An illuminating and essential sequel to his earlier work on the nature of American federalism, Who Decides makes the case that American Constitutional Law should account for the role of the state courts and state constitutions, together with the federal courts and the federal constitution, in assessing the right balance of power among all branches of government. Taken together, both books reveal a remarkably complex, nuanced, ever-changing federalist system, one that ought to make lawyers and litigants pause before reflexively assuming that the United States Supreme Court alone has the answers to our vexing constitutional questions.
Download or read book California s Tax Machine written by David R. Doerr and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 564 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Balance written by Glenn Hubbard and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2013-05-21 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Two economists explain why financial imbalance causes civil collapse--and why America could be next. From the Roman Empire to the Ming Dynasty to Imperial Spain, the superpowers of the world have grown to become the greatest economic, political, and military forces of their time--only to collapse.
Download or read book From Kleptocracy to Democracy written by Fred Smoller and published by . This book was released on 2018-08-08 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Kleptocracy to Democracy: How Citizens Can Take Back Local Government provides students with a critical examination of the large-scale political corruption that looted Bell, California between 1993 and 2010. For 17 years, some city officials paid themselves more than a million dollars a year, using the police department as a "for profit" vehicle for collecting fines, and issuing over $100 million in bonds. They turned the city into their own private cash machine. Residents of the poor, immigrant community are still struggling to repay the city's exorbitant debt. The book draws on interviews with more than 50 people connected to the Bell scandal to provide a compelling, in-depth look at how waves of factory closings, economic shifts, and immigration pressures gutted the structures that are essential to civic health, opening the way for grifting politicians. The book analyzes the seemingly minor breakdowns in civic life that invite corruption, and offers students and interested citizens tools for analyzing the health of their own communities. Apathy killed democracy in Bell for almost two decades, but the press--and the dogged political activism of young Latinos and Muslims in the Dreamers generation-- brought it back. The book makes a clear connection between civil complacency and the resulting damage to American democracy. It demonstrates how citizens can actively resist political corruption by remaining involved and informed in local government. From Kleptocracy to Democracy inspires informed citizenship. It is an excellent supplementary resource for courses in local government, public administration, sociology, Chicano studies, urban politics, law and society, and ethics studies. Fred Smoller, a frequent contributor to the Los Angeles Times and the Orange County Register, earned his Ph.D. from Indiana University, Bloomington, his M.A. from the University of Texas at Austin, and his B.A. from State University New York, College of Fredonia. He is an associate professor of political science at Chapman University in Orange, California, where he teaches courses on public administration and state and local politics. His key area of professional interest is American politics, with a specific emphasis on media and politics, local government, and public administration.
Download or read book L A s Titans of Temple Street written by Tom Sitton and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2023-03-29 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book studies Los Angeles County and its government since World War II. A special focus is given to the "Titans of Temple Street," the five-member Board of Supervisors that determines policies and actions for many issues throughout the county, especially for residents who do not live in the county's 88 cities. It is the largest of all U.S. counties, with a population of more than 10 million, more residents than 41 states, and an annual budget of more than $44 billion, more than all but 19 states. It has served as an innovative example of county government since the early 1900s.
Download or read book State Legislatures Today written by Peverill Squire and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2019-07-19 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A concise and provocative introduction to state legislative politics, State Legislatures Today is designed as a supplement for state and local government courses and upper level courses on legislative politics. The book examines state legislatures and state lawmakers, putting them in historical context, showing how they have evolved over the years, and differentiating them from Congress. It covers state legislative elections (including the impact of redistricting, candidate recruitment, etc.), the changing job description of state legislators, legislatures as organizations, the process by which legislation gets produced, and the influences upon legislators.
Download or read book Framed written by Sanford Levinson and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2012-04-03 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In his widely acclaimed volume Our Undemocratic Constitution, Sanford Levinson boldly argued that our Constitution should not be treated with "sanctimonious reverence," but as a badly flawed document deserving revision. Now Levinson takes us deeper, asking what were the original assumptions underlying our institutions, and whether we accept those assumptions 225 years later. In Framed, Levinson challenges our belief that the most important features of our constitutions concern what rights they protect. Instead, he focuses on the fundamental procedures of governance such as congressional bicameralism; the selection of the President by the electoral college, or the dimensions of the President's veto power--not to mention the near impossibility of amending the United States Constitution. These seemingly "settled" and "hardwired" structures contribute to the now almost universally recognized "dysfunctionality" of American politics. Levinson argues that we should stop treating the United States Constitution as uniquely exemplifying the American constitutional tradition. We should be aware of the 50 state constitutions, often interestingly different--and perhaps better--than the national model. Many states have updated their constitutions by frequent amendment or by complete replacement via state constitutional conventions. California's ungovernable condition has prompted serious calls for a constitutional convention. This constant churn indicates that basic law often reaches the point where it fails and becomes obsolete. Given the experience of so many states, he writes, surely it is reasonable to believe that the U.S. Constitution merits its own updating. Whether we are concerned about making America more genuinely democratic or only about creating a system of government that can more effectively respond to contemporary challenges, we must confront the ways our constitutions, especially the United States Constitution, must be changed in fundamental ways.
