Hollywood Bvd: The Boulevard of broken dreams? (Click for pic credit)
Douglas Carswell MP and Daniel Hannan MEP, along with a few others, may wish to have a glance at Tim Garton-Ash’s latest – this time answering the queston ‘why has California got itself into such a mess:
“…its prisons are overflowing; the energy-guzzling way it meets its water needs takes a staggering 19% of the state’s now expensive electricity; it has six of the 10 worst cities in the US for air pollution; its public finances are a disaster. Year after year, its legislature has failed to agree a budget. Its deficits make Italy look like a paragon of fiscal prudence. And this summer, it generated incredulous headlines around the world when the state started issuing IOUs. The government of one of the most richly endowed territories on earth, home to Hollywood and Silicon Valley, a crucible of innovation and the eighth largest economy in the world, was broke.
Why has California got into such a mess? Some analysts say: “Too much democracy!” In California’s eccentric version of direct democracy, all kinds of extravagant public spending are mandated by so-called initiatives, proposed by anyone who can gather enough signatures, and passed by a simple majority of those who bother to vote on them, while the state’s revenue-gathering possibilities are curbed by the same method.”
Do go and read the whole thing if you can? My one quibble is with the term ‘too much democracy’ – there seems to be an underlying assumption that direct democracy – something that, in practice, excludes the vast majority of the population from any kind of influence – is somehow a higher – if overly idealistic – notion of democracy.
California has become totally unmanageable – arguably because of this assumption. Here’s what would be in the post if Messrs Carswell and Hannan get their way….
