A new study finds that America's most populous state seems to have given up on representative government. By Peter Schrag. The New Press. Conversely, if Madison were alive today, he would surely regard the current polity of our leading state, as Peter Schrag presents it in this angry and persuasive book, as exemplifying his worst fears about democracy's going awry. For the two decades following World War II, California managed, without breaking a sweat, the difficult trick of working for most of its citizens while more than doubling in population.
Public schools are now at the bottom of national rankings.
Universities have shrunk their enrollments and raised their fees. Even the weather seems worse. The hero of the good, old California, to Schrag's mind, was optimistic, unpretentious, energetic Gov. Pat Brown, who built the highway and water and higher-education systems. But it changed California most of all. The loss of money from Proposition 13 was a direct blow at the part of California education that was financed by property taxation, the public schools and community colleges.