California State Legislature-Ballotpedia Case Study

California is known for being a very liberal “blue” state. California is almost guaranteed to vote democratically in a presidential election and much of the country considers themselves democratic. The areas that are more conservative in California are also very adamant in their beliefs. The two major political parties in California are extremely polarized and have extremely high partisanship. The parties themselves however are extremely weak. The idea that parties can have high levels of partisanship but be weak is extremely confusing. It has much to do with the way California’s politics have been established and the level of direct democracy in the state.

The democratic theory believes that everyone governs and has the most influence on politics in California. According to the democratic theory, voters have their own power to decide what laws to approve or disapprove by the state legislature. They also have the power to choose their own legislation, as well as

In November 2010 Californians backed Proposition 25, which reduced the legislative threshold needed to pass a budget from a two-thirds vote to a simple majority. This majority means 50% plus one, which is 41 Assembly members and 21 Senators. Before Proposition 25, California needs two-thirds vote to approve a budget. However, in California, most of people are Democrats, this two-thirds rule gave the minority party Republicans veto power. It caused the delay in budget policy. In 2010, there was 100 days overdue of the budget (Vechten, California Politics a Primer). With proposition 25, this delay does not happen any more; legislative leaders can pass the budgets on time. Clearly, Proposition 25 would reform California’s broken state budget process. This “on-time” process would hold legislators accountable for late budgets by stopping their pay and benefits every day the budget is late. It also ends budget gridlock by allowing a majority of legislators to pass. In another hand, some people claim that Proposition 25 make it easier for politicians to raise taxes and restrict voters' constitutional right to reject bad laws, wouldn’t punish politicians, who would just increase their lavish expense

The southern border of California has changed its voting pattern from mostly Republican to Democratic in this 25 year shift. One of the main reasons for voting changing in southern California is that more Hispanic-Americans are migrating from their home countries. The southern border of California is also a border of the country between Mexico and the United States which makes it easier for Hispanic-Americans once crossing the border to just stay in southern California. The reason for the voting shift

The book, California Politics and Government: A practical Approach, helps students understand the government and politics. It describes the principles used in the state government and the relevance of these to the nowadays students and the future ones. The book has clear examples and explanations that help the students understand the California politics. It includes budgetary politics and policies, California law and court cases, government regulations, policymaking and elections in terms of political parties and interest groups. It addresses the economic, educational, immigration and social issues and theireffecton the politics. Students are able to familiarize with the public policy coverage; hence, make a connection between the effects and practical applications of legislation and the government.

The structure of the legislative arm is simple. It comprises of the assembly and the senate just like the federal government. In California, the state assembly comprises 80 members who are elected on a two-year term. The state senate comprises 40 members elected on a four year term. The requirements for election into office are: US citizen 18 years of age, resident

A partisan election is one where candidates are listed on the ballot with indication of their political party. Seven states elect their supreme court justices in partisan elections. Altogether, fifty-eight state high court justices are elected using this method, totaling about seventeen percent of all three-hundred thirty-eight state supreme court justices across the country. Alabama, Illinois, Louisiana, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Texas, and West Virginia are

In United State, there are two big political parties which are the Republican and the Democrat. They have been dominating the country as majority of the President of the United States are from these two parties. In history, we know that California was the 31st state of the United States and was admitted official on September 9, 1850. California is the most populated states in the United States which is located at the West Coast of the United States. Due to this, the politic in California has a big effect to the country. As we all know, California has the highest amount of electoral voters.

May the court take judicial notice of the information contained in the official California Voter Information Guide?

In 2009, term-limits imposed on legislators were a total of 14 years; legislators were allowed two terms in the Senate (8 years), three terms in the Assembly (6 years). In 2012, Proposition 28 reduced the term-limits on legislators to 12 years total, but allowed them to spend their time in either one house or split their time between the two (Vechten, 2015). Proposition 28 was established with the intent to “stabilize a legislature that has been wracked by rapid membership turnover every two years, because lawmakers would be allowed to accumulate experience in one place and would not be itching to jump into the next office whenever it became available (Vechten, 2015).” Term limits have affected almost every aspect of California’s legislative life, and have ranged from both positive and negative. Some of the advantages of California’s term limits are that the higher number of available seats has encouraged the increased participation from ethnic minorities and women. As of mid-2013, 40 percent of legislators are Latino, African American, or Asian American (Vechten, 2015). Additionally, there have been unprecedented numbers of women in office. The higher turnover causes diversity of new legislators, and with new legislators, they bring new ideas. Newer legislators have experienced the “effects of current laws in their districts and have fresh ideas about how to address problems arising from them (Vechten, 2015).” However, there exists some disadvantages to term limits. The higher turnover and term limits have caused the loss of expertise in a range of policy areas. Term limits have caused legislators to usually stay in one area of politics, usually spending all their time in one of the two houses, instead of risking losing their seat to run for the other chamber. Additionally, long-term, comprehensive lawmaking will suffer since the

The legislative framework of a country refers to the process of creating, utilization, and governing of laws. In the United States, the government of each of the 50 states is structured in accordance with their respective constitution and although not required, each are modeled after the federal government, consisting of the three branches: Executive, Legislative, and Judicial. Each of the state governments are also organized as a presidential system where the governor is the head of the state. Due to each state having their own governor as their representative, their legislative framework will vary with each state. For this paper, I will be comparing the legislative framework of Florida with the state of California.

Report by the Legislative Analyst's Office that predicted a severe budget shortfall meant that most of the California public school students were to experience shorter school year. Governor's tax measures tried to solve the cuts of public school financing. Menifee district depended on Governor Jerry Brown's initiative or the education to face $5.5 billion, thus advising school districts plan for the worst case scenario in their endeavors to come up with their 2012/2013 budget.

1.The 2 Senators that represent California in the U.S. Senate are two Democratic women, Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer.

In recent years, Colorado voters have not shown strong single party affiliation with two of the last four presidential elections going to the Republican candidate and the other two going to the Democratic candidate (270towin). Despite presidential poll outcomes, Colorado has had a Democratic elected governor and lieutenant governor since 2007. The Colorado state Senate holds a Republican majority, as opposed to the Democratic ran House of Representatives; United States Representative are also split close to evenly between the parties, with one more Republican representative than Democratic. The party leadership of this state clearly explains more liberal state policies, such as legalization of both medical and recreational marijuana, tightening

These ideas bring forth the questions of where knowledge comes from. As mentioned technical knowledge comes from institutional experiences and empirical science. Allowing for representative governors to make seemingly well informed decision as they have more access to experts (Matsusaka 2005). Within the framework of direct democracy, the average citizen does not have the same access. However, direct democracy does allow for citizens to make value judgements (Matsusaka 2005). The proletarian ability to make value based decisions may be attributed to experiential knowledge termed metis. In the particular case of the EIA, metis should be view not in terms of mastery of a particular skill through experience but in the ability to follow one’s intuition.