Schrag: Do California Voters Want a Dysfunctional Government?

Most are hardy perennials. One, Proposition 93, easing the state's stupid term limits, which all agreed were too tight, is already on the February ballot. Another, shifting the power to apportion legislative and congressional districts from the Legislature to an independent commission, has started its move toward the November ballot.

A third, streamlining the budget process by reducing or eliminating the supermajority requirement and thus making the majority accountable, was generally regarded as a nonstarter for both political and policy reasons. Making spending easier without reducing the state's two-thirds requirement for raising taxes – a near impossibility in the present climate – was an invitation to still greater deficits.

Maybe the most telling point came in a question from the floor before the stars had even arrived: Wasn't it possible that, given the voters' rejection of prior re-reforms – easing term limits and eliminating autopilot spending, for example, or lowering the budget threshold – they really liked a little dysfunction and gridlock?

Baldassare, who also directs PPIC's voter surveys, summarily rejected the suggestion: That wasn't what the voters were saying.

But maybe, while voters complain about special interests and about politicians not getting things done, they find the alternatives even less palatable.

Make it easier to raise taxes or spend money? Not a prayer. Make term limits more flexible so legislators would have more experience and could take a long-term view of public issues? No way unless proponents can make voters believe, as Proposition 93 tries to do, that they're tightening term limits.

As to reforming the redistricting process, to quote Burton, ordinary people don't "give a s---." As Brown said, every legislator does what his or her constituents want – not surprising since the current redistricting system allows members to, in effect, pick their constituents. But the constituents like that. And given the state's political geography, the possibilities of creating many competitive districts are limited.

Because the Legislature is apportioned according to population, not by voters, it's more representative of that population than the statewide electorate. It has proportionately more Latinos and more urban liberals. It's thus not surprising that California voters, who are still overwhelmingly non-Hispanic white, and are older and more affluent than the population, don't fully trust the politicians that other people elect.

There's research showing that the more diverse a society gets, the more reluctant voters will be to support generous public programs. If the beneficiaries (of schools or social services) might be members of your family or people you know, you're more likely to support them.

For more than 30 years, Californians' search for perfection led them through a string of big fixes – some useful, many misconceived – that fog up representative democracy, depoliticize the governmental process and confound public accountability. Any "restoration" should be exactly that, not more of the same.

Peter Schrag is the former editorial page editor of the Sacramento Bee. This article is published with his permission.