Paradise Lost: California's Experience, America's Future - Softcover

Schrag, Peter

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0520218981 ISBN 13: 9780520218987

Publisher: University of California Press, 1999

Synopsis

For much of this century California was the envy of the continent, not just for what nature had made but for what civil society had created: speedy freeways, the country's best public school system, public works that made the desert bloom. Not any more. California's public works and social services are crumbling, and public education has plunged from the top to the bottom of nationwide measures. How could the American dream go so wrong so fast?

About this title

Review:

In Paradise Lost veteran Sacramento journalist Peter Schrag reports on the dark side of populism in America's Golden State. California in the 1950s seemed a land of limitless potential, boosted by world-class public services and Progressive politics; today, however, its future hardly seems unbounded, its services are in shambles, and its politics are increasingly driven by rancor. Schrag places much of the blame on the state's penchant for ballot initiatives, in which citizens can bypass the legislative process and place questions directly to voters. Through a series of antitax and term-limits campaigns, he argues, these initiatives have done serious damage to the notion of representative democracy in the state. Schrag is a liberal, so not everybody will agree with his conclusions, but he is a thoughtful writer who reminds us that the United States often follows California's lead. Says Schrag, "Things had better work here, where the new American society is first coming into full view, because if it fails here, it may never work anywhere else either."

About the Author:

Peter Schrag was for nineteen years the editorial page editor of the Sacramento Bee. He is the author of many books and is currently a visiting scholar at the Institute of Governmental Studies, University of California, Berkeley.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0520218981
• ISBN 13: 9780520218987
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 362