Keynote Speaker Summary

Our club was privileged to listen to popular author Joe Matthews at our last meeting.  Mr. Mathews, a fourth-generation Californian, writes about his home state and its politics, media, labor, and real estate. He is co-author, with Mark Paul, of California Crackup: How Reform Broke the Golden State and How We Can Fix It (University of California Press, 2010). His previous book was The People’s Machine: Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Rise of Blockbuster Democracy (Public Affairs, 2006), an account of Governor Schwarzenegger’s first term and his use of ballot measures as governing tools.  Joe serves as associate editor at Zócalo Public Square, contributing writer at The Los Angeles Times, columnist for The Daily Beast, and lead blogger at NBC's California site, Prop Zero. His work appears in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The New Republic, The American Prospect, Politico, the Scientific American, Los Angeles magazine, and Fox & Hounds Daily.

Mr. Matthew’s keynote address focused on the history of the California state constitution and its evolution over the decades.  California has the world’s most powerful – and inflexible – system of direct democracy. It's the only place on the planet where a law passed via ballot initiative cannot be amended or changed by the legislative body without another vote of the people. The power to circumvent legislative and executive accountability completely is one reason why California’s system is dysfunctional – and why budgets never seem to balance. California doesn't have one governing system, it has three systems. These three systems are at war with each other: an election system designed to produce governing majorities, a consensus-based legislative system that amounts to minority rule, and an inflexible system of direct democracy that trumps the first two systems. California doesn't work because it can't work. 
His conclusions – perhaps shared by many – are that our state political system is in need of immediate and significant change.  Incessant budget crisis plus a government seemingly paralyzed by partisan bickering and gridlock have led to demands of reform, even a state constitutional convention.  Mr. Matthews argues for the possible abolition of the British-copied two house system, in favor of one chamber with even more elected officials – meaning a lower ratio of citizens per elected official.  He also would support measures to replace single-member legislative districts with multi-member districts elected by proportional representation, and emptying California's constitution of supermajority vote requirements for budgets and policy mandates for spending and taxes.  He’s also in favor of giving voters both more choices (by allowing the legislature to place a counter-proposal on the ballot next to each initiative) and more power (by making it easier for voters to overturn legislation via referendum).  Finally, he advocates that we move power out of Sacramento and restore authority and accountability to local communities by requiring that spending and revenue-producing decisions for each program be made at the same level of government, with fiscal rewards for success and costs for failure.
Wow!  Looks like we have a lot of work to do!  We wish Mr. Matthews success with his proposals and we thank him for providing us with his views on these important topics.