Rowman & Littlefield Publishers / Manhattan Institute
Pages: 344
Trim: 6⅜ x 9¼
978-1-4422-2343-1 • Hardback • June 2013 • $44.00 • (£34.00)
978-1-4422-2344-8 • eBook • June 2013 • $41.50 • (£32.00)
Brian C. Anderson is the editor of City Journal, the cultural and political quarterly published by the Manhattan Institute, where he writes extensively on social and political trends. Formerly, he served as senior editor of City Journal and as a research associate at the American Enterprise Institute.
Contents
Preface | William Simon
Introduction | Brian C. Anderson
Part I: The Politics and Economics of Decline
The Golden State’s War on Itself | Joel Kotkin
The Big-Spending, High-Taxing, Lousy-Services Paradigm | William Voegeli
The Beholden State | Steven Malanga
Cali to Business: Get Out! | Steven Malanga
The Long Stall | Wendell Cox
The Pension Fund That Ate California | Steven Malanga
Flatten California! | Arthur B. Laffer
The Radical Reform That California Needs | Troy Senik
Part II: The Urban Fiscal Crisis
Lost Angeles | Joel Kotkin
How the Road to Bell Was Paved | William Voegeli
Broken Windows, Broken City | Steven Greenhut
Part III: Public Order
The Reclamation of Skid Row | Heather Mac Donald
The LAPD Remade | John Buntin
The Sidewalks of San Francisco | Heather Mac Donald
Part IV: Of Energy and Environment
California Needs a Crude Awakening | Tom Gray
California’s Water Wars | Victor Davis Hanson
Part V: Immigration Dilemmas
The Rainbow Coalition Evaporates | Steven Malanga
California’s Demographic Revolution | Heather Mac Donald
Part VI: Education
The Worst Union in America | Troy Senik
The Bilingual Ban That Worked | Heather Mac Donald
The Union’s Occupation | Ben Boychuk
HED TK | Ben Boychuk
Grading the Teachers | Larry Sand
HED TK | Heather Mac Donald
Part VII: The Culture
The Lost Art of War | Andrew Klavan
Radical Graffiti Chic | Heather Mac Donald
Tom Wolfe’s California | Michael Anton
Part VIII: Keep Hope Alive
The Silicon Lining | Guy Sorman
California, Here We Stay | Victor Davis Hanson
California was once regarded as a model for the nation; trends that started here swept the continent. Today we can only hope this is not true; but as The Beholden State powerfully shows, if California is still a model, the nation is in deep trouble. The stunning swiftness by which California went from being Reagan's "shining city on a hill" to Detroit-by-the-Sea is an object lesson for the rest of the nation on how quickly bad public policy can squander the bounty of nature and the productivity of its creative citizens.
— Steven F. Hayward, University of California, Berkely
The editors and writers of New York's sprightly City Journal have gone west, young man, and have returned with a gold nugget of political wisdom. How California became a basket case, and why it needn't remain one—these are the twin veins worked in this sobering and inspiring volume. No one concerned with the future of California and the nation can afford to ignore The Beholden State.
— Charles Kesler, Claremont McKenna College