Research

California Votes: The 2006 Governor's Race

Ethan Rarick
2007

In November of 2005, California voters were ready to terminate Arnold Schwarzenegger as a politician. The state was headed in the wrong direction, Californians told pollsters, and they didn't want to reelect their Hollywood governor. The two most likely Democratic challengers held leads over Schwarzenegger, who had just endured a terrible thrashing in a special election he had called. After less than two years in office, it seemed the political career of Arnold Schwarzenegger was an experiment gone wrong.

Yet just a year later, Schwarzenegger swept to victory, carrying 52 of the...

A Future Worth Creating

Thomas P.M. Barnett
2006

This bold and important book strives to be a practical "strategy for a Second American Century." In this brilliantly argued work, Thomas Barnett calls globalization "this country's gift to history" and explains why its wide dissemination is critical to the security of not only America but the entire world. As a senior military analyst for the U.S. Naval War College, Barnett is intimately familiar with the culture of the Pentagon and the State Department (both of which he believes are due for significant overhauls). He explains how the Pentagon, still in shock at the rapid dissolution...

Risking House and Home: Disasters, Cities, Public Policy

John M. Quigley
Larry A. Rosenthal
2008

Natural disasters are too often viewed as unpredictable and horrendous 'one-off' events. Edited by John Quigley and Larry Rosenthal, this useful collection of essays and research studies takes a systematic look at how private insurers, governments, and the larger economy respond to floods, earthquakes, wildfires, and terrorist events. Chapters by Howard Kunreuther (on insurance), Alan Berger, Carolyn Kousky, and Richard Zeckhauser (on damage distributions and losses), and Adam Rose (on resilience) are especially welcome for their coverage of the full range of impacts, losses, and...

Racial and Ethnic Politics in California: Continuity and Change (Volume Three)

Bruce E. Cain
Sandra Bass
2008

California often leads the nation forward. From the tax revolts of the 1970s to the digital revolution of the 1990s, America's largest state has become the proving ground of the national future. Today, California is again showing the way, this time toward a rich diversity that is already spreading to the rest of the nation. By 2000, California had become the first large state to have a majority of nonwhite residents. Texas has since followed, and today a variety of states across the nation are approaching that benchmark: Arizona, Georgia, Maryland, Mississippi, New York.

How does...

The New Political Geography of California

Frédérick Douzet
Thad Kousser
Kenneth P. Miller
2008

In many ways, recent developments in California politics can be understood best through geography. The formal rules of American politics — such as district-based elections and the Electoral College — make geography crucial to the political process. Where voters live is in many ways as important as how they behave. In recent decades, California's political map has changed dramatically as the state's fast-growing population has divided along racial, ethnic, economic, religious, and cultural lines. Most notably at the statewide level, these trends have caused California's traditional North-...

America After Iraq: A New World Order or No Order?

Mark Steyn
2008

In a series of three talks, Mark Steyn examines America's role in the world and how it might change. In "Strong Horse, Weak Horse: American Power and World Perception," he begins by talking about how the world views the United States, especially in light of our occasional willingness to use power and our occasional reluctance to do so. In "After America: New Order and No Order," Steyn speculates about a future in which "America is so isolated that it is no longer the maintainer of global order." And then in the final talk, a question-and-answer session with Naval ROTC students, Steyn...

America and the Middle East: Challenges for the Future

John Abizaid
Michael Scheuer
2009

John P. Abizaid retired from the United States Army in May 2007, after 34 years of active service. After graduating from the United States Military Academy at West Point, he rose from infantry platoon leader to become, at that time, the youngest four-star general in the Army. At the time of his retirement he was the longest-serving commander of United States Central Command. During a distinguished career he commanded units at every level, serving in the combat zones of Grenada, Lebanon, Kurdistan, Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq. Units under his command have included the 1st Infantry...

After the Tax Revolt: California's Proposition 13 Turns Thirty

Jack Citrin and Isaac William Martin, editors
2009

In 1978 California voters shocked the political world by approving Proposition 13, a strict limit on local property tax rates. No state had ever approved such a far-reaching constitutional limitation of the power to tax. And Californians did not just approve it; they embraced it, rejecting dire warnings of doomsday from the state's political, business, and academic leaders. Voter turnout was the highest recorded for any off-year election in the history of California and the tax cut won in a landslide, with 65% of the vote. Thirty years later, Proposition 13 remains firmly entrenched in...

California's Golden Years: When Government Worked and Why

William T. Bagley
2009

"Politics is personal," Bill Bagley likes to say, and here is a personal journey through the politics of America's most extraordinary state. California's Golden Years offers tales of cash-filled envelopes, all-night poker games, and all the free liquor a legislator could drink. But the stories and anecdotes offer more than mere fun - they illuminate a larger lesson learned during Bagley's 14 years in the California Legislature. Personal relationships are, in Bagley's view, the glue that ensures working relationships and pragmatic compromises. "Those who play together," he writes, "...

Globalization's Muse: Universities and Higher Education Systems in a Changing World

John Aubrey Douglass
C. Judson King
Iriwn Feller
2009

Universities have become a widely recognized route to full participation in the knowledge society. They serve as an unparalleled source of knowledge production, a foundation for modern science, an unequaled generator of talent, and a nearly required path for socioeconomic mobility. But how do we build, nurture, and sustain these crucial institutions? Globalization's Muse helps to answer those questions, informing both policymakers and educators of the profound efforts by governments and institutions, and reminding both groups that in this complex and evolving environment, the United...