The Kansas City Chiefs came from behind to defeat the San Francisco 49ers 31-20 in Super Bowl LIV. The game has been endlessly analyzed but some related economic and social issues could use similar attention. For example, nothing like the college admissions scandal was going on.  Celebrity status might help stars such as Beyoncé and […]

Californians can wait for hours outside Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) offices, and once inside it only gets worse. As Patrick May notes in the Mercury News, the massive state agency, with a budget of more than $1 billion, “is unable to accept credit cards for payment.” DMV problems run much deeper, but a solution […]

On November 5, 1996, California voters approved Proposition 209, the California Civil Rights Initiative, by a margin of 54 to 46 percent. Twenty years later this vote should be recalled as a victory over racial prejudice and politically correct dogma. According to this dogma, all institutions should precisely reflect the racial or ethnic diversity of […]

In June of 1978 California governor Jerry Brown opposed Proposition 13, but voters passed the measure in a landslide. California’s ruling class has never ceased to attack it, and these attacks are certain to escalate with new ammunition from Nathan Gardels of the Berggruen Institute. “The Proposition 13 property tax revolt of 1978 still defines […]

Promises Still to Keep: A Decade of the Mental Health Services Act, a new report by the Little Hoover Commission, notes that Proposition 63 raised a whopping $13.2 billion. But according to the report, the state is unable to document whether the $13.2 billion fulfilled any of the Act’s proclaimed intentions. According to sponsor Senator […]

The
following op-ed appeared in the San Francisco Examiner on May
15, 2011:

Last month The Economist, prestigious British journal, ran a cover story: "Where
it all went wrong: A special report on California’s dysfunctional democracy."
The report blames "direct democracy," the initiative process, for the state’s
woes. The ruling class loves the report, but Californians have good reason to
be wary.

The initiative process lets ordinary
Californians become policymakers. For example, in 1996, the first time they had
any say in the matter, Californians passed Proposition 209, which ended racial,
ethnic and gender preferences in state government, employment and contracting.
That policy of institutional discrimination had been imposed by legislators and
unelected bureaucrats.