The Claremont Institute is guided by the ideas of the American Founding and what it takes to establish and maintain a free society. National, state, and local governments serve different functions, but are united by a common purpose: to secure the natural rights of Americans and to provide the conditions of a free society. Studies of state and local policies sometimes overlook the intimate connection between local and state government. Many of the challenges facing local governments in California today have much to do with the unique structural relationship between municipalities and Sacramento. 
In 2003, the state budget was $99 billion, with a deficit of around $34 billion. After replacing Gray Davis with Arnold Schwarzenegger at the governor's mansion, and after issuing numerous bonds, the state in 2009 has been saddled with a budget of $144.4 billion and the deficit is projected to rise to $42 billion. Governor Schwarzenegger's promise of getting to the bottom of California's spending problem has yet to occur. The hope that housing prices and state revenues would continue to climb indefinitely has proven false-as sensible policymakers warned-and Californians are now left holding a very big bill.
At the heart of this mess are some structural political problems that separate California's elected officials from responsibility for their actions. Electoral gerrymandering has given most in the state legislature safe seats. Legacies of the Progressive era such as the initiative, the referendum, and two-thirds votes in the legislature on tax and budget issues further diffuse responsibility. Here the institutional wisdom of the American Founders has specific application for California. When parties and majorities must take personal responsibility for their votes in the legislature to raise taxes or pass a budget, those votes will matter more and be the object of greater electoral scrutiny. Such scrutiny should lead to a majority of legislators who will defend the state's Constitution and promote policies that lead to a healthy economy and safe communities.
The Claremont Institute's Golden State Center addresses these and many other policy challenges facing state and local government.
Books published by the Center:
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| The California Republic: Institutions, Statesmanship & Policies | ||
Edited by Ken Masugi | By Brian P. Janiskee and Ken Masugi | By Brian P. Janiskee and Ken Masugi |
Recent Items
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Policy Analysis of Three California Ballot Measures
The Claremont Institute offers to our supporters and the public the following observations on the three most important ballot measures in the upcoming California primary election: Propositions 14, 15, and 16. -
Voegeli, Taxed in California
Claremont Review of Books Contributing Editor William Voegeli discusses why expenditure and tax limitations, despite continuing popularity with voters, are insufficient on their own to change California's wasteful, expensive, disorganized government, in the Los Angeles Times. -
Boychuk on the Tea Party Movement
Golden State Center fellow Ben Boychuk discovers good, old-fashioned constitutionalism on proud display at Tea Parties across America, here.
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Boychuk on Environmental Regulations in California
Golden State Center fellow Ben Boychuk details the disastrous consequences of the most far-reaching climate law in America, California Assembly Bill 32, in City Journal.
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Stop Me Before I Govern
Governor Schwarzenegger's call for a constitutional amendment to handcuff future elected officials into specific spending formulas betrays an ignorance of the principles of republican government.
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Boychuk on Direct Democracy Run Amok
Direct democracy in California is careening toward total absurdity in 2010. The five dozen initiatives and referenda currently circulating highlight the growing disfunction of our battered representative form of government, writes Golden State Center fellow Ben Boychuk in the Sacramento Bee.
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Boychuk on Federal Education Grants
"Race to the Top" education reforms appear promising - but so did countless other federal education reforms. If California takes this money, we will be left footing the bill long after the reforms are abandoned, argues Golden State Center for State and Local Government fellow Ben Boychuk.
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Boychuk on Zero-Tolerance
Zero-tolerance policies are the heavy-handed tools of an educational bureaucracy too cowardly, or callous, to employ common-sense, argues Golden State Center for State and Local Government fellow Ben Boychuk.
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Collins on a Constitutional Convention in California
Holding a convention in California to re-write our Constitution will telescope current partisan bickering, increasing our passions and inhibiting our reason, argues Golden State Center for State and Local Government director Patrick Collins.
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Transparency through Taxation
Responsible government requires clarity in taxation, argues Patrick Collins, director of the Golden State Center for State and Local Government.
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Boychuk on Federal Control of Education
The federal government is buying control over the education of California's children, writes Ben Boychuk, fellow of the Golden State Center for State and Local Government.
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Karako on Revising the California Constitution
The California state constitution needs a rewrite, and the federal constitution drafted by the framers should be the model, writes Tom Karako in the Los Angeles Times here.
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Grading the Propositions
The Claremont Institute's Golden State Center presents a new report analyzing the upcoming Propositions 1A-F on California's May 19, 2009 special election.
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Karako on California's Two-Thirds Budget Vote
Instituted in 1933, California's required two-thirds vote for budgets was seen as a structural measure to limit spending and compel a kind of bipartisanship. The supermajority requirement represents a distrust of power. But the political science of The Federalist Papers teaches us that the concentration of power without accountability can be even worse, writes Tom Karako of the Claremont Institute in the Orange County Register here.
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Karako on California Budget
Like the Big Three automakers in Detroit, many in Sacramento and other state capitals seem to be waiting instead for a $1 trillion federal bailout. Rather than wait for a handout from Washington, writes Tom Karako of the Claremont Institute in Investors Business Daily, California should set an example to the other 49 states. Click here. -
Eastman Files Amicus Brief on Prop 8
Dr. John C. Eastman, on behalf of the Claremont Institute's Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence, today filed an amicus brief relating to Proposition 8, an amendment to the California state constitution passed by the voters of California which defines marriage as between one man and one woman. In response to Attorney General Jerry Brown's recent declaration that he believes Prop 8 to be invalid, this amicus brief points to the constitutional obligation of the courts to treat it as a binding amendment to the California Constitution. Eastman is joined by CCJ affiliated attorneys David Llewellyn, Tom Caso, and Karen Lugo. The text of the brief is found HERE. -
California Public Policy 2008 Conference
The Claremont Institute's Center for Local Government will be hosting a California Public Policy 2008 conference on Saturday, May 31, at the Balboa Bay Club in Newport Beach, California. Topics for discussion include The Budget Crisis and California Taxation; Land Use, Redevelopment, and Property Rights; Federalism and Decentralization; The California Economy: What Can Be Done?; and Major Issues Facing California Today. -
Ahmanson on Religion
Howard F. Ahmanson, a member of the Claremont Institute's board of directors, reviews Noah Feldman's book, Divided by God: America’s Church-State Problem—and What We Should Do About It, in the Summer 2007 issue of the Claremont Review of Books.
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Democracy in California, Post-Recall Edition
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Survey of Local Government Officials
In the fall of 2006 The Center for Local Government sent out a survey to 800 mayors and city council members across California. The results, published in February of 2007, can be found here. -
The New Urbanism: Friend or Foe of Property Rights?
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Local Liberty: A Newsletter of the Center for Local Government
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The California Republic: Institutions, Statesmanship & Policies
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Individual Freedom and Proposition 75
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Open Letter on American Identity
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Christian Charity
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The Economic Case for Direct Democracy
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Self-Government The Future of Local Newspapers
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Sanctuary Cities: A New Civil War
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Our Backs Against The Border - Arizona is America
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Immigration and American Identity
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Kelo in California:The Property Rights Counterrevolution
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Faith-Based Social Work: Going Beyond the Myths
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Local Politics and the English Language
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California Dream: Opportunity and Freedom
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A Response to Philip Bess and the New Urbanism
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Schwarzenegger on the State of the State
Ken Masugi analyzes California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's state of the state address, and finds it promising for the issue of budget reform. -
Brave New Gold Rush
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They Take a Village
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Lattes at the Regulatory Cafe
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The Design Dilemma
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The New Urbanism: A Skeptic Responds
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Local Litigation
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The New Urbanism:From Aristotle and God to Baseball
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Clarifying the California Ballot
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On the Road to a Safe and Secure California, Proposition 66 Is the Wrong Route
On November 2, Californians will be asked to vote on Proposition 66, a measure that would seriously weaken the Golden State's highly effective Three Strikes law. Fellows Edward J. Erler and Brian P. Janiskee make the case for three-strikes in a new paper, available now for download. -
Budget Battle Centers on Restoring Self-Government
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Why Study Local Government: A Primer
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Self-government is Local Government
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The $1.3 Billion Solution
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Fighting Graft for the Price of the Morning Paper
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From the Editor
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Conservatives' Problems with Special Districts
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A Guide to the Golden State
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Recovering Good Government in the Golden State
The fiscal crisis plaguing California stems from a simple problem—government attempting to do too much and spend too much. Eloise Anderson, Brian Janiskee, and Lindsay White offer common sense proposals for addressing the state's fiscal crisis. -
The Latest Democratic Tax Plan is Boldest Yet
Key California Democrats want to raise both the tobacco and income taxes before the Oct. 7 recall. These tax hikes, they argue, would require only a simple majority vote of each chamber of the Legislature. Nonsense, says Brian Janiskee. And unconstitutional nonsense at that. -
Time for California Republicans to Get Partisan
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Redevelopment: Fetch the Vet?
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Suburb Secession
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Religious Freedom Wins in Cypress
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Local Liberty Book Review
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Religious Freedom Wins in Cypress
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Praise for Democracy in California
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Saving Democracy in California
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Letter to the Editor of the Los Angeles Times
In the November 25, 2002, Los Angeles Times, George Skelton takes aim at the party system, and the Constitution that parties were formed to protect, explains Claremont Institute Vice President Thomas Krannawitter. -
California's Expensive Propositions
In the spirit of our goldrush past, Californians have taken great financial risks with recent bond measures, writes Institute fellow Brian Janiskee. -
A Political Forecast
The California Constitution favors big government and may be the biggest obstacle to building a majority political party on the principles of freedom and limited government, writes Vice President Thomas Krannawitter. -
The Trouble With the Star-Trib Poll
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California Thinking
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Al Qaedism
What happens when radical a Islamic terror network becomes an icon for American criminal sub-cultures? Claremont Institute Fellow in California Studies Victor Davis Hanson writes on the disturbing symptoms of "Al Quadism". -
Eastman and the Orange County Campaign Finance Laws
John Eastman, director of the Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence has filed another suit challenging the remaining ordinances that restrict contributions to independent expenditure committees. -
The Many Flavors (and Sizes) of Tyranny
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California's Drug War Deception
California's biennial barrage of initiatives include an initiative that would allow first time drug offenders treatment instead of incarceration. Institute Vice President and Director of the Golden State Center Brian Kennedy describes the policy implications of Proposition 36. -
Making Sense of California's Electricity Mess
Until the State of California fully embraces free market reforms in utilities, electric bills will remain high. Vice President of Claremont Institute Brian T. Kennedy explains why. -
A Modest Proposal for Gun Control
As Americans we should direct our gun laws, not against armed, law-abiding citizens, but against those criminal elements who use guns as the instrument of their terror and violence. -
A Brainless Anti-Discrimination Bill
We should not sacrifice our children, in the face of what we know is best for them and for society, on the altar of radical ideology. -
Critics of California's $7 Million Welfare Penalty Miss the Point
California's welfare laws should incorporate the kind of tough sanctions that have proved so successful in reducing welfare dependency in other states. -
The Military Ethos and The Politics of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"
President Clinton has undermined the moral authority of commanders at all levels, ultimately making it more difficult for them to carry out this very difficult compromise. -
Direct Democracy in California
The California initiative process is something a voter can really sink his teeth into. But no one should want to make a steady diet of it, writes senior fellow Charles Kesler. -
Phonics Triumphant? Traditional Reading Gets a Big Boost in California
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A Bad Solution to Low Turnout
Is last minute voter registration the answer to low turnout? Senior fellow Larry Peterman writes on this expensive new proposition, which will only lead to partisan advantages, voter fraud, and ultimately more voter discontent.
