I went to a very nice talk by Thad Kousser (UCSD) yesterday on whether California is "ungovernable." Some of the takeaways I got (and if I screwed any of this up, it us my fault, not Thad's):
(1) The California legislature really has gotten more polarized over the years.
(2) The people of California have not.
(3) Politically, California has changed from a North-South state (D's north and R's south) to a West-East state (D's west and R's east).
(4) For non-budget legislation, California actually is governed quite well.
(5) For budget legislation, it is not.
(6) The difference is that the budget requires 2/3 approval, whereas other types of
legislation only requires a majority.
(7) The 2/3 rule is not a Prop-13 phenomenon--it has been around since the 1930s.
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Richard:
When I lived in Berkeley in the early 1980s the student humor magazine ran an article saying that California should be split along I5, not north-south as many were saying at the time. (they also argued that Lake Tahoe should go with West CA along with a special corridor along I80)
My point is that the East-West split might not be so new.
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