Chapter 11: Concluding Thoughts

Test Bank

Essay

1. What major social developments will significantly affect politics in California during the next 10–20 years?

2. What kinds of political issues will California elected officials uniquely face in the coming decades?

3. The text suggests that California politics is “riddled with paradoxes.” What is paradoxical about politics in California?

4. What political changes might help improve California government’s long-term viability? In other words, how might some of California’s political problems be solved through political reform?

5. Imagine that you have the time and money to propose a ballot initiative to reform California government. In simple terms, what is your idea? How would it solve a particular problem without creating more? Consider the consequences of your reform and place it in historical context. Finally, what are the chances for its passage?

6. Is California “ungovernable”?

7. “Effective governance” has many dimensions, but one way to define it is as follows: a good fit exists between the demands of the people and what their institutions deliver; decision makers understand their constituents’ needs and respond responsibly to them; and representatives grasp the dimensions of pressing problems or unanticipated events and devise fair, responsible, and timely solutions that make economic sense. Is California “effectively” governed? Considering the definition provided here, devise a short list of criteria for evaluating what “effective governance” means, and construct an argument about how well California state government measures up.

Difficulty Level: Hard

8. In what ways is California “different” from the rest of the nation? How do these differences give rise to politics that are uniquely challenging or “exceptional”?

9. Setting aside policy issues, name three ways that California politics are “exceptional,” meaning that it is the only state or one of only a few states to share these characteristics.