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This paper tells the story of the California Prevention and Education Project (CAL-PEP), a nonprofit HIV/AIDS service organization developed in 1984, in San Francisco, by and for sex workers involved in Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics (COYOTE), America's first prostitutes' rights organization. As such, CAL-PEP represents a case of the transition by activists from protest to nonprofit service provision in the neo-liberal era, when (among other developments) government responsibility for social welfare was and is increasingly devolved onto a network of private, nonprofit service providers. Therefore this paper engages with the broader question of whether the more radical, oppositional agendas of these activists has been eclipsed by their service provision duties, especially as their organization has grown more dependent on the state. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the California lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) movement's public policy accomplishments. The lofty policy goals set by this statewide movement, combined with the everyday sort ordinariness with which these goals are treated by the state government, build momentum for the advancement of LGBT-related policy issues more broadly at the national level. Via an interpretive analysis of LGBT organizational data concerning the policy gains that California is potentially capable of accomplishing for the LGBT movement as a whole, the paper thus presents a set of criteria for determining the particular dynamics that may define a statewide safe space. As these criteria may be applicable to other national movements facing similarly challenging political contexts, the paper offers a useful explanation of one important strategy that social movements may employ in order to create political opportunities. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article describes the paper presented during the annual meeting of the Western Political Science Association on March 17, 2005 in Oakland, California. The paper examines the solution to sprawl versus gentrification dilemma, the development of urban land trusts, and the mechanism for stabilizing housing prices.

A major subplot in the 2003 recall of California governor Gray Davis was the flurry of litigation seeking to block, postpone, or modify the election. This paper provides a summary of the recall lawsuits and compares the courts’ role in the recall process to their role in checking the direct initiative. The paper argues that unlike the direct initiative, the recall is a hybrid between direct and representative democracy, and thus that the courts’ participation in the recall process was less consequential than their central role in checking the direct initiative. Instead, the heavy recall litigation can be attributed to: the untested nature of the recall rules; a litigious political culture; and the high stakes in removing the governor of the nation’s largest state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political scientists and communications scholars have long documented the tendency of the media to focus on "horse race" elections stories at the expense of policy analysis. In this paper I identify the emergence of the circus metaphor to characterize elections as a hybrid form of political theater, media spectacle, and tabloid justice journalism. I examine the relative number of horse race, circus/spectacle and policy stories on the 2003 recall of California Governor Gray Davis and election of actor Arnold Schwarzenegger as his replacement. I find that major California papers varied in the tone and substance of their coverage. All of the newspapers educated their readerships about the recall process. Ironically, the newspaper paper with the highest level of horse race stories also informatively compare and contrast campaigns. Circus/spectacle stories did not dominate coverage, but exceeded the number of articles focusing policy issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some of the central questions driving this paper are as follows: (1) Under what conditions are Latinos elected to the California state legislature? While it is true that many Latinos are elected from majority Latino districts, many Latino legislators do not represent districts with majority Latino populations. (2) Additionally, how much does the ethnic composition of a district affect the chances that a Latino candidate will be elected in a given district? At least at the national level, very little evidence exists that Latinos are being elected from districts with white majorities. No districts with a combined white and Latino population majority elect Latino members of Congress. At the state level, this pattern differs, which is why it is crucial to understand the variables that contribute to Latino victories at the state level. The smaller the district's constituency the more likely it is for Latinos to be elected from a variety of demographic districts. This paper will examine the California state legislature, as well as some preliminary analysis of the U.S. House building on Lublin's (1997) analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both policymakers and academics are paying increasing attention to the rural poverty crisis in the United States. Of special concern are colonias, rural communities located within 150 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border in the states of California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas that lack adequate infrastructure and often lack basic services such as running water, drainage, street lighting, and paved streets. This paper examines California?s colonias, all fifteen of which are located in Imperial County according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) definition. Because much of the existing literature focuses on colonias in Texas, with literature on California?s colonias extremely scarce, this paper begins to fill a void that should aid policymakers, academics, and practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a paper related to mortgage default in Southern California to be presented on March 24, 2012 at the Western Political Science Association Annual Meeting in Oregon. It mentions the study on the choices that borrowers facing mortgage default have at their disposal if they are unable to cure their mortgage deficiency, Southern California as the highest rates of foreclosure in the country and adds results of the mortgage default decision making model.

The diffusion of environmental laws across U.S. states has become the subject of some theoretical debate. Much of the empirical work surrounding environmental law in a federalist system has focused on the "race to the bottom". In order to attract business investment, the patchwork system of state laws supposedly creates perverse incentives for the most lenient environmental standards. Others believe the federalist system engenders a "race to the top" through contagion. In this alternative scenario, adoption of new environmental laws acts as a catalyst for surrounding states to do the same. These divergent views oversimplify the responses of private firms to the threat or enactment of state environmental regulations. This paper develops a theoretical framework wherein private sector responses to state laws are conditioned by the mobility of firms and the relevance of jurisdictional boundaries. Several pioneering laws in California are examined to better understand if and when environmental policies and consumer standards are diffused or extended to other states. The findings suggest the federalist system can operate under a "lowest common denominator" mechanism in which firms adhere to the strictest state-specific regulations across the country or push for more consistent federal standards. This is because cost-minimizing firms operating under economies of scale will opt to produce and market similar products nation-wide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A conference paper on the analysis of the voting patterns of several racial groups in California's General Elections of 1992 and 1994 through ballot measures, presented at the Annual Meeting of the Western Political Science Association in Portland, Oregon, March 22-24, 2012. It discusses the comparison of votes of White American, African American, and Hispanic voters. It also presents an overview on the voting pattern of minority voters.

While random selection procedures have what Verba (1996) describes as an "intimate connection" with representativeness, random sampling in small-n research is generally not appropriate given its use can cause serious biases. Non-probabilistic or purposive sampling, on the other hand, potentially "opens the door" to additional sources of bias (King, Keohane, Verba 1994). This paper examines the extent to which non-probability sampling affects representativeness and generalizability using the Inland Empire Community Organizations Project (IEP) as an illustrative case. I argue that criticism of the use of purposive sampling often neglects its capacity to enhance the representativeness of samples. Additionally, because generalizability is not exclusively a function of research design, but is a "property of theory"(Chow 1997), external validity can result from purposive samples as the theoretically-driven selection of cases can improve our understanding of causal processes using means absent from the tools of randomization. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper defines the concept of party organizational culture and describes an 6 state (California, Illinois, Michigan, Rhode Island, Tennessee and Wyoming) survey to assess organizational culture of state political parties. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conceptual approaches to Latino identity in current scholarship fail to capture the relational dynamics of racialization and agency in the formation of this panethnic identity. As "Latino" is a panethnic category, it can be a complementâ??and in some cases, a discursive replacementâ??to ethnic-specific identities like "Mexican-American" or "Puerto Rican." Nevertheless, the Latino category has been dissected in scholarly circles as subsuming a host of ethnic, linguistic, regional, citizenship, and phenotypic differences. Many proclaim the Latino category as so diverse as to be a problematic and perhaps superficial category. Some observers conclude that the diverse and encompassing nature of panethnicity positions Latinos as a de-racialized and externally imposed grouping that may eventually disintegrate; instead, those currently seen as "Latino" may eventually conform to the binary poles of black and white racial groupings. However, I argue that ascribed identificationâ??racialization and visible markersâ??and the assertion of agencyâ??individual identity affirmation and organizational mobilizationâ??produce oppositional racial consciousness that provides a basis for politically resonant panethnic identity and coalitions. That is, at least some sector of those identified as Latino choose it as a racial identity, a decision that has decidedly political implications. My work will thus seek to answer the following research questions: What is the nature of the racialized discourses that emerge around the Latino identity and community in Los Angeles? How and to what extent do these racialized discourses affect identity formation and organizational strategies? What are the political implications of affirming or mobilizing based on panethnic identity as opposed to other identity articulations? My approach accounts for articulations of racial identity among Latinos. In order to test my hypothesis that a sense of racial solidarity spurs panethnic identity and coalition building, I will largely employ methodologies of discourse analysis, content analysis, and ethnography. This paper is a presentation of my dissertation proposal, as well as a discussion of my preliminary findings. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Like many large U.S. cities, San Diego has seen its downtown population grow substantially over the past 20 years, due, in part, to aggressive redevelopment efforts. Much of these efforts were pursued under public-private partnerships, with the City of San Diego providing land, capital and regulatory relief to developers undertaking new projects downtown. This paper critically evaluates San Diego's major post-1990 downtown redevelopment efforts. We focus on recently-completed Petco Park and ancillary development in the once-moribund East Village. We compare the City's role in building a new baseball stadium for the Padres to similar efforts in Los Angeles and around the country. We also examine the commercial re-use of former naval facilities - the Naval Training Center and Navy Broadway Complex - located near downtown. Despite the dedication of substantial public resources, the public benefits from these projects have minimal. Indeed, the City has often been left holding the bag for basic infrastructure and services on projects advertised as revenue neutral. We conclude with the lessons to be learned from San Diego's redevelopment experiences, and suggest reasons for the City's chronic inability to achieve greater public benefits from its substantial investments in public-private initiatives. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Christian theology is often overlooked by political theorists as a resource for developing frameworks of citizenship and identity. Yet, in Southern California many churches are developing their own ideas about what is means to be a member of a community and providing speaking opportunities for those who are rarely heard. This paper will consider recent experiences of two Catholic churches in San Diego County as they have engaged pastorally in issues of migration, citizenship, and identity. I argue that the pastoral witness of these churches "on the front lines" of the im/migration debate is relevant to expanding and extending contemporary scholarship about citizenship. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Passed in 1994 during a period of rising public support for get tough on crime policies, the ‘Three Strikes’ Law was an impulsive response to two egregious criminal acts. While the first and second strikes must be either violent or serious, the third strike need only qualify as a felony. Leandro Andrade, now serving two consecutive terms of 25 years to life was struck out through an intersection of ‘Three Strikes’ and California's Penal Code Section 666 which permits the enhancement of a misdemeanor petty theft conviction to a felony when the defendant has a prior theft-related conviction on the discretion of the prosecutor and the trial court. This discretion poses grave concerns for the guarantees of equal protection and due process under the Fourteenth Amendment. This paper reviews the ways in which the third strike law impinges on equal protection and due process guarantees, exploring the current jurisprudence on discretion and equal protection and follow with an empirical investigation from recent three strike cases in California. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper takes a look at California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's first fifteen months in office. He came to office with an aura of Charisma which was reminiscent of governors from a California past—giants the likes of Hiram Johnson, Earl Warren, and Ronald Reagan. These were governors who adhered to a model of California politics that could be called ‘moralistic’ if one were to use the political labels designed by political scientist Daniel Elazar in the 1960s. Now that Governor Schwarzenegger has served his first fifteen months, it may be time to pause and consider if he has maintained his charismatic posture, and if his style of politics fits with the moralistic model he seemed to promise when he was inaugurated in November 2003. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses the consolidation of polling places in Los Angeles County during the October 2003 gubernatorial recall election to study the costs of voting. The consolidation afforded an opportunity to observe a natural experiment: those whose polling places were changed in the consolidation should be statistically comparable to those whose polling places are not changed. Thus, we may observe both groups' turnout rates and ascribe any differences to the treatment of the change in polling locus. We find evidence that changing polling place locations does decrease turnout overall by a substantial 1.88 percentage points; a drop in polling place turnout of 3.05 percentage points is offset by an increase in absentee voting of 1.19 percentage points. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the Voting Rights Act comes up for renewal in 2007, its effects on the political incorporation of groups other than blacks will be of key importance in any debate. Among the key questions in any such discussion will be: given that differences in the rates of registration and voting among racial and ethnic groups persist, have the language provisions of the Voting Rights Act helped at all to enfranchise linguistic minorities in the United States? Surprisingly little attention has been paid to this question (see Jones-Correa 2003), however, Ramakrishnan (2002) and Jones-Correa (2003) have both analyzed Census Current Population Survey data to look at the effects of language ballot assistance on the voter participation of Asians and Latinos, finding that the answer to that question is a qualified ?yes.? Nonetheless, given the data problems associated with the Current Population Survey, significant doubts remain. This paper furthers the inquiry on the effectiveness of the language provisions of the Voting Rights Act by conducting statistical analyses of registration and voting data at three different levels: first, at the census-tract level in the state of California; second, among cities in the states of New York and New Jersey; and third, at the county level across counties in five states--California, Colorado, Florida, New Jersey and New York. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most of the recent literature that investigates turnout and voter mobilization finds little or no impact on turnout as a result of get-out-the-vote phone drives. This paper describes three field experiments embedded within get-out-the-vote phone drives conducted in the San Francisco Bay Area in November 2002 and October 2003 (the gubernatorial recall election), all of which focused on new registrants. Two of the drives were explicitly partisan (Democratic), and the other was strictly non-partisan. These experiments were designed to investigate whether get-out-the-vote phone drives are effective tools for increasing turnout. Neither of the partisan get-out-the-vote phone drives had no detectable effect on voter turnout. There was a positive effect on turnout from non-partisan calls, but it was only effective on Democratic registrants, and then only when the caller was representing a local organization, rather than a national one. The overall results raise continued questions about the efficacy of registration movements. The surprising finding regarding new Democratic registrants may provide insight on different dimensions of voters' party identification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is three-fold: First, to assess the claim that urban democratic institutions are ?corroding? by examining the single case of Claremont, a small California city; second, to very briefly consider the generality of Claremont?s experience; and, third, to briefly and critically examine some of the explanations posited for the experiences described. We find that the ?corrosion? of democratic institutions exists, as many scholars have suggested. At the same time, though, as the ?corrosion? takes place, repair work is being done. The deteriorating trend may obscure the repair process?a process that may foreshadow a slowing of the decline and even the birth of new mechanisms for public control of the city. Claremont?s experiences appear to be replicated in other small cities, though the data presented is too limited to adequately confirm the generality of our findings. Finally, we will suggest that advocates of the ?decline of democracy? thesis tend to define democracy in terms of ?means,? rather than ?ends.? The old institutions that served as means may be ?corroding,? but new mechanisms may be arising. There is much greater ambiguity about the extent of decline when democracy is defined as an end, i.e., as a government reasonably responsive to the wishes of the public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper builds on earlier research that demonstrates a strong relationship between local level electoral structures and Latino bureaucratic representation. This research suggests that over time, descriptive minority legislative representation leads to a greater minority presence in the bureaucracy, but that the type of election determines the magnitude and scope of bureaucratic representation. A question remains however, concerning the direction of influence. Do minority legislators delegate top-level bureaucratic responsibilities to minority agents, who in turn appoint more minorities to lower level positions (a top-down process)? Or, do minorities enter the bureaucracy at the lower levels and move their way up the organization through time, finally gaining access to legislative positions as they acquire organizational influence (a bottom-up process)? I present a research proposal that is designed to disentangle the causal direction of this process by looking at school board, administrative, and teacher representation of Latinos in school districts of two states -- Texas and California -- across a ten-year period. The cross-sectional time series approach would allow for preliminary causality tests, and provide more leverage than previous studies concerning the direction (and magnitude of effects) of minority access to the bureaucracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I examine the features, functions, and implications of the ballot initiative as a policymaking institution by investigating the electoral success of the medical marijuana movement of the 1990s. Drawing on case studies of initiative campaigns in California and Maine, interviews with key actors, and document analysis, I explore how medical marijuana advocates successfully negotiated the demands of the initiative process and why opponents' attempts to defeat medical marijuana measures failed. By approaching the institutions of direct democracy from the perspective of ballot petitioners, I demonstrate how the features of the initiative process, including the lack of voter cues typical in candidate campaigns, the public nature of initiative battles, and the absence of compromise and amendability, benefit interests with particular skills and resources. While traditional policymaking institutions emphasize expertise, coalition-building, and deliberation that takes place among an elite audience, initiative policymaking places tremendous importance on organization, fundraising, advertising, and in particular framing and public marketing of a policy idea. In the case of medical marijuana, the initiative process allowed supporters to use their political skills and resources to expand the scope of conflict beyond what they saw as fainthearted legislators and powerful opponent law enforcement organizations in order to harness the public's support for medical marijuana as a policymaking resource. Contrary to the claims of many direct democracy opponents, I argue that money and organization are not responsible for manufacturing support for medical marijuana, but rather amplified the effects of existing grassroots and public support. Finally, the paper shows that the initiative process and the implementation of successful initiatives can allow different, even contradictory policy images and approaches to flourish at the state and federal levels. Venue-shopping on the part of... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores citizen participation in local politics to assess its potential benefits to policy making: when citizens participate, do they enhance the problem solving capacity of government by adding resources to the policy making process? To answer this question, I examine how citizens try to influence local policies in a mid-sized city (Santa Ana, California) over a 10-year period, analyzing what issues citizens try to influence and how they try to influence them. I argue that the benefits from participation are limited by citizens' choices concerning which policies they attempt to influence. Citizens had ample opportunities to participate in local policy making, and benefits (primarily in the form of information) did materialize as a result of their activity. Yet, citizen participants typically did not attempt to address major community problems; rather, they focused their attention on smaller, less complex issues. Complex and difficult issues, however, need the benefits that participation can bring the most; the simpler and clearer the issue, the more likely officials will be able to address the issue without the additional resources citizen participation can provide. The issues that generated the most participation were ones that least needed the additional resources that participation can bring. Citizens' preference to participate on simpler and clearer issues limits the benefit from their participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes voter data from the California special recall election, examining both the media messages the voters received and the information voters revealed to be important in their decision-making process. For the thirty days leading up to the October 7, 2003, recall election an electronic focus group was assembled to participate in a daily e-mail questionnaire, which asked what news each participant received that day, from what news source(s), including both political and non-political news, and whether or not they had decided to vote yes or no on the recall, and for which replacement candidate they intended vote. Despite the irregularities in our sample, the findings generally followed the trends that were observed in the larger population, as were measured in statistically significant surveys and exit polls made available to the public. Areas for future research may be in distinguishing the varying influence of the different forms of media (more traditional news sources versus the talk radio shows, internet news sites, and weblogs) on the voters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several recent experiments have demonstrated that door-to-door mobilization efforts can significantly increase Latino turnout. However, these experiments have been limited to non-partisan efforts in Central California. This paper describes the result of a recent effort to increase the Latino vote in Maricopa County (Phoenix), Arizona, that urged citizens to vote in a particular way. Rather than simply encouraging participation, canvassers worked to convince Latino voters to support Proposition 414, a ballot initiative designed to prevent the closing of a local hospital. The results were dramatic; voters targeted by the mobilization effort were significantly more likely to vote. This demonstrates not only that personal mobilization efforts can increase Latino turnout in a variety of geographical locations, but also that such efforts can be particularly successful when voters are asked to vote in a way which is beneficial to their community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the influence of homeownership upon public policy attitudes and quality of life assessments for individuals in Southern California. We find that status as a homeowner does appreciably influence individual attitudes. Further, our results show that homeownership status may trump race/ethnic identification in attitude formation in Southern California [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The extensive literature on racial bloc voting (RBV) and minority representation has given little attention to Asian Americans. This paper contributes by examining the behavior of Vietnamese Americans living in the Little Saigon enclave in Orange County, California. Matching surname-coded voter registration records and precinct level returns for state and municipal elections between 1998 and 2002, I find evidence of bloc voting and polarization in every race where a Vietnamese American candidate is pitted against a White candidate. Further, I find evidence of pan-ethnic behavior: Vietnamese Americans support candidates of different Asian ethnicities and rank them as their candidates of choice. Coming in light of recent evidence suggesting that polarized voting is declining in some parts of the United States, the findings have both instrumental implications for Asian Americans seeking protection under the Voting Rights Act -- and theoretical implications for panethnic coalition strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the 1992 Los Angeles Riot, the issue of interracial coalition building became an issue of debate. Studies of coalition building focus on political coalition among minorities, which are by nature unstable and short-lived. For a stable and long-term coalition, trust is the key element, which is brought by social interactions. This paper will examine the social interaction among Korean-American, Latino-American (Mexican-American), and African-American organizations within the City of Los Angeles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

David Rusk argues that elastic urban areas, defined as those with open land, are more successful than those that are inelastic. His empirical data makes a convincing case for elasticity. He applies his theory to metropolitan areas and tests it through aggregate comparisons of policy outputs. I suggest that his theory can also be applied to sub-regions within a metropolitan area and may explain why some suburban areas deteriorate while others are able to respond successfully to social and economic changes. This paper examines the history and political development of Southeast Los Angeles County a large section of greater Los Angeles. Much of the area has experienced significant social and economic decline. I argue that the presence of many small cities, created shortly before the area grew in population in the 1950's is the major cause of the inability of the area to respond positively to the social and economic changes of the past twenty years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The State of California has a history of shifting the costs of state government programs to local governments. Under Dillon's Rule, California legislature has stipulated local governments are administrative arms of the states and can be ordered to carry out state programs or policies generally referred to as mandates. As state budget shortages became common since 1990, the number of mandates continued to increase but was unfunded or funding to be forthcoming if application were submitted to the state mandate commission. The commission was of little value as the legislature stripped funding to operate the commission because of state budget shortages. No timeline was established to fund the commission to reimburse local governments for state ordered programs. Shifting state costs to local governments accelerated in the 1990's with the passage of Educational Revenue Augmentation Funds (ERAF). This legislation transferred local revenues to schools largely because the state government was unwillingness to use its own general fund money. Under Proposition 98, passed in 1988, 45% of the state budget must service K-12 schools and community colleges. Voters in 2010 passed Proposition 22 to constitutionally stop the state from taking local revenues but mandates were not covered. In 2011 the state began to implement the Public Safety Realignment Plan. This legislative mandate was to transfer inmates from state prisons to counties jails to comply with a court order to reduce the excessive overcrowding in prison facilities. The courts ruled that overcrowding in penitentiaries' were unacceptable. This Act shifted a large percentage of inmates to local governments with the promise by the state to cover the costs that would no longer be part of the State Department of Corrections. What are the consequences of this new mandate on local governments? Who is going to pay the costs and how can the expenses be guaranteed to local governments? What consequences will realignment have on local law enforcement and crime rates especially in the areas of drug abuse? What about the costs of health care and housing needs? California yearly prison costs more than any other state in the country and the state has chosen to transfer some of these costs to California county governments. In fiscal year 2011-2012 California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation will spend over $7 billion plus another $970 million in prison-related costs outside the department's budget. The total cost of California's prisons to incarcerate a population of 170,000 was almost $8 billion. As of this writing the state continues to impose unfunded mandates in a variety of areas to order local governments to do jobs but may never pay them back for the work the state requires. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marsy's Law (Proposition 9) purported to increase Victims' Rights by making significant changes to parole in California. Supporters of Marsy's Law intended to decrease lifer inmate's "chances" to obtain parole by statutorily lengthening the amount of time between parole hearings, and to increase victim presence at parole hearings by creating greater opportunities for victim participation. I conducted an analysis of 211 randomly selected parole hearing transcripts in California both before and after Marsy's Law was implemented. I found that the passage of Marsy's Law nearly doubled the amount of time set by the Parole Board between parole hearings. Additionally, Marsy's Law has increased victim participation at parole hearings. However, it is not yet clear whether Marsy's Law has impacted the quality of victim participation at parole hearings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents brief information on the education plan of the U.S. President Barack Obama. It examines theory of action of School Improvement Grants (SIG) which is linked to the knowledge presented in the research of effective school improvement policy reforms. It further discusses school reform in the federal government and California. Information on school improvement research, SIG transformation, is also offered.

The article presents brief information on the impact of Proposition 19, also known as the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010, (RCTCA) on California. It states that RCTCA was defeated by a 54 percent to 46 percent margin, and discusses how precisely the regulations ought to look if marijuana is legalized. It further mentions that regulation and prohibition are distinct legal governments in case of legalization of marijuana.

The article explores the effect of urban-rural differences on variance in electoral support for variable issues in 2008 general election in California. It analyzes the views of the state population on Proposition 8, the constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and Proposition 7, the amendment requiring utilities to buy half of their power from renewable sources by 2025. It also explains factors affecting divergent views on the issues.

The article explores the case of the New Sanctuary Movement (NSM) in discussing the intersectionality of religion and politics as seen through political opportunity. NSM was established out of cultural, social, political and religious groups fighting for immigrant rights. It focuses on NSM's role as a religious institutional sanctuary, legal guidance, and legislative advocacy for immigrants facing deportation. It studies the movement's activities in Los Angeles County, the San Francisco Bay Area and Ventura County in California.

The article presents a study that deals with the process of counting the homeless population in a California county. The author highlights the definition of homelessness as well as the number of homeless people counted, their explanations for homelessness, the political debates about the importance of homelessness as a public problem, and the amount of government funding to be provided. Focal to the study are homeless enumerations in San Luis Obispo county in 2005 and 2009.

The article examines the experience of Los Angeles, California as host of the 1984 Summer Olympic Games. It discusses the continuities and abrupt shifts in the city's socioeconomic and political landscape. It describes how the 1965 Watts ghetto riot, the 1984 Olympics and the 1992 South Los Angeles uprising captured the transformation of Los Angeles from a regional city to a global city. The emergence of Los Angeles as a multiethnic city and the ideological shift that started in late 1970s are also cited.

This essay outlines a form of intersectional analysis applicable to assessing youth agency as expressed in and through multiple identities and in complex social, political and economic terrain. The aim is to formulate a widely applicable theoretical framework via which empirically-oriented political scientists can assess the potential for youth desistance from gang identification and violence in California as an alternative to suppressive, crimininalizing and incarcertation-based responses that have so far failed in the post Prop 21 era. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent commentary emphasizes the crucial importance of political independents for California politics. However this commentary fails to clearly distinguish between independent registrants and people who indentify as independents. We focus on this distinction, drawing on Field Polls of Californians. We find that while there is overlap between the characteristics of "decline to state" voters and people who identify as independents (e.g., both groups are more likely to be ideological moderates) these are often not the same people. We also find that relatively few people both decline to state a political party preference and fail to express a leaning toward a major political party. Additionally, the sharp recent increase in independents has occurred only among those declining to register with a major party rather than those failing to identify with one. We conclude that it is premature to dismiss political science skepticism about the significance of trends regarding political independence. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Even in what has passed for normal times in recent California history, the budget process in California is still in its early stages by the time of the WPSA's annual meeting, and so reports from the Golden State at this roundtable have of necessity been very preliminary. This year is anything but normal. Exactly a month ago, Governor Schwarzenegger signed a budget deal addressing a massive deficit that includes the current (FY2008-2009) budget as well that being planned for the coming year. The assumptions on which that deal had been based became obsolete almost immediately, and there is a very real possibility that the entire package may unravel when voters go to the polls for a special statewide election on May. At the same time, a little noted but quite astonishing feature of last month's agreement was the adoption of a budget for next year, more than four months early and far ahead of any previous agreement on record. It would hardly be surprising if that agreement is revisited before it can go into effect. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses strategies and methods employed by political parties in California in order to pass the budget. The state is one of the three in the U.S. where a super-majority vote in the legislature is needed in order to pass a budget. It is noted that the reform package implemented by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2005 failed.

The article discusses the context of the 2008-2009 budget for California and the state's ability to resolve the financial crisis. To deal with the crisis, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger suggested a 10% across the board cut in spending and the suspension of the pre-payment of the state's debt. The budget proposals are developed by the agencies and request is submitted to the Department of Finance. The response of the Legislative Analysts Office (LAO) to the Governor's Budget message is also cited.

This article discusses the problem of homelessness in California. The "Los Angeles Times," in its September 15, 2003 issue reported that the City of Santa Ana contains the most crowded households in any large U.S. city and that average household size is 4.5 persons per household. Moreover, the housing problem is made worst by the fact that one in every five houses is substandard. It examines that actions taken by the state and local governments to address the political and economic aspects of this housing problem.

This article discusses portfolio in the context of the academic world. The term "portfolio" in the academy refers to a folio of academic writings or of student work that reflects performance over time. Included is a list of publications published by Jossey-Bass on assessment, outcomes and portfolio assessment. Particular focus is given to the use of portfolios in assessing student learning, as well as identifying program strengths and shortcomings. Both lower and upper division courses at California Polytechnic State University use portfolios.

While much research has considered whether women are advantaged or disadvantaged in American elections, little scholarly attention has been given to local races. The existing literature makes expectations in this area unclear. Scholars have identified various ways gender might influence elections, but the net effect of gender on outcomes is often uncertain. Furthermore, empirical research commonly finds little difference in electoral success between similarly situated female and male candidates. And the study most closely related to our own offered the striking finding that female incumbents were more successful in local elections. To address the gap in research on local elections, we studied the electoral safety of male and female county supervisors in California beginning in the middle 1990s. Our research takes advantage of the relatively recently established California Elections Data Archive. Unlike the previous analysis of city council races, but consistent with research on contests for state and national office, we found no significant differences in the electoral safety of female and male incumbents. We surmise that at present any influence of gender on local races is likely to be subtle, and does not affect aggregate election outcomes. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In most big cities, the chief of police is a political player in his own right, reliant on public support. Data from two polls of Los Angeles residents constitute a unique dataset to consider the determinants of public support for the chief of police in a large, heterogeneous urban setting. The surveys were conducted in 2002 and 2007 when a different chief of police was nearing the end of his first five-year term of office - one African American and one white. Taken together, the surveys present an opportunity to examine how public support for police chiefs of different racial origins varies among racial and ethnic groups. We examine how individuals' demographic traits, socio-political attitudes, and area crime rates - in combination with the police chief's racial identity - contribute to public support for the chief of police. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the wildlife policy arena, ballot initiatives have been used increasingly over the past two decades to wrest control of policy from legislators and bureaucrats. This trend has led to dramatic changes in policy as professionals are forced to adapt to changing political winds. I use a model of policy change developed in the early 1990s by Frank R. Baumgartner and Bryan D. Jones, to examine how the policy arena has changed in recent years by ballot initiatives. Case studies in California and Colorado are examined. Whether the wildlife establishment prevails is affected by the success of opponents in altering policy image. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a report entitled "Toward a Concrete Universalism of the Other in International Human Rights Law" presented at the Annual Conference of the Western Political Science Association held in Oakland, California on March 2005. For the past decades, human rights has created major problems in the contemporary political philosophy, where possibilities of universalism were questioned. Several explanations about the distinction between right systems were included.

The article presents a report entitled "Three's Company? Or Three's a Crowd? Tripartite Race Relations in a Southern City" presented at the Annual Meeting of the Western Political Science Association in Oakland, California on 2005. White and Black race were traditionally considered in the U.S., however, due to the changes in national population these races has become less issue. Rapid changes of the racial context was observed to originate in the Southern region of the U.S.