In a replay of 2005, all of the budget measures supported by Governor Schwarzenegger in a special election are going down to defeat (The only exception is Proposition 1F, which would limit legislators’ salaries under certain circumstances.) Here, in Los Angeles, it was hard to tell that it was election day. Attention was focused on more inspirational matters.
As I have argued, despite rhetoric to the contrary, the Schwarzenegger years have not ushered in a vigorous “hybrid democracy,” in which voters partner with the state legislature to direct policy. Instead, the devices of direct democracy remain too blunt and expensive as tools for anything but interstitial governance. The direct democracy power in this decade has been primarily a negative one: no to Governor Davis in the 2003 California recall; no to Gov. Schwarzenegger’s package of budget reforms in 2005; and no to the latest Schwarzenegger-Democratic Legislature package rejected tonight. (Unsurprisingly, the rates of passage of initiatives and ballot measures is no higher in this decade compared to others.)
The one potential exception to this rule: electoral reform. Californians passed a redistricting reform measure last year, and, thanks to the demands of a moderate Republican legislator who forced it as part of last year’s budget package, California voters will consider a “top two” primary next year. It would not surprise me if Gov. Schwarzenegger gets behind a measure to lower California’s supermajority requirement for approving budgets as well. That’s the more modest version of hybrid democracy that might work in this state.
But in the meantime, the state can expect some pretty tough budgetary times ahead.