By Dan Walters
Published August 16th 2004 in The Modesto Bee
(SMW) - Californians were in denial for many years about the deterioration of their state and local governments, but no reasonable person can now deny that the state is afflicted with a massive crisis of governance at all levels - one that has become, in fact, official dogma.
The opening passages of a voluminous report by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's "California Performance Review" are devoted to a "diagnosis" of the state's governmental ills, citing a "chaotic and cumbersome" organizational structure, "outdated and ineffective" management systems, useless but costly programs, outmoded technology and other maladies.
Alas, the too-wordy report itself is a disappointment, not because its recommendations are not, in the main, valid, but because it devotes too much attention to trivia down to the paperclip level and not enough to the larger relationship of a sclerotic governmental structure to the needs of a rapidly growing, rapidly changing society.
Even if Schwarzenegger, the Legislature and voters were to adopt every one of the report's dozens of specific recommendations, and they had precisely their predicted effects, the state's larger crisis would remain largely untouched.
All right, one might ask, California needs more, but wouldn't the performance review report be a good starting place? No - because it approaches the issue backwards, and its fate, either positive or negative, would preclude action on the larger dilemma.
If it's largely enacted, Schwarzenegger and others involved will pat themselves on their backs and declare the job of governmental reform to be done. And if it's a failure, which is more than likely, it will poison the political well for more fundamental, meaningful change.
What we need is a fundamental rethinking of how democratic government can function - perhaps even if it can function - in a society as fragmented and complex as California, where consensus on almost any issue is elusive. The overlapping, duplicative and often competitive state and local governmental structures we have created in California may be, as the performance review indicates, impediments to efficient and responsive government, but they, in a sense, merely reflect our lack of social cohesion.
Our goal should be to realign governmental functions and structure to the reality of the era. One small example: California has not changed a county boundary since 1907, even though the state itself has changed in almost every respect since then.
Another: The Legislature's size, 120 members, has been in place even longer, resulting in districts that are too large to be meaningful.
Real reform that would restore public confidence and encourage political participation would blow up boxes on a far grander scale. It would replace counties with regional governments, eliminating thousands of single-purpose entities that often work at cross-purposes; it would create a single-house Legislature of perhaps 300 members, with proportional representation that would include minority parties; it would entertain, at least, the notion of parliamentary-style government to provide more impetus for action and more accountability for results; it would redefine state and local government responsibilities to focus on performing core functions efficiently and effectively, rather than doing too many things poorly; it would embrace technology and flexible service delivery systems; it would overhaul a nonsensical tax system.
Governing California will never be easy, simply because the state is complex and growing more so every day, even as it continues to add millions of people to its population every decade. Growth and diversity produce unique political issues that the present system or even a modestly retooled system cannot address. Fundamental change would be tough work, but Schwarzenegger's ability to command public attention provides a rare opportunity to accomplish it.
The alternative is not attractive - less relevance for those elected to office, continued decline in political participation, more dominance by narrow interests with stakes in the status quo, and more policy-by-initiative. The unseemly budget crisis that we have endured for the past three years would be just the harbinger of a complete governmental collapse.
The opening passages of a voluminous report by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's "California Performance Review" are devoted to a "diagnosis" of the state's governmental ills, citing a "chaotic and cumbersome" organizational structure, "outdated and ineffective" management systems, useless but costly programs, outmoded technology and other maladies.
Alas, the too-wordy report itself is a disappointment, not because its recommendations are not, in the main, valid, but because it devotes too much attention to trivia down to the paperclip level and not enough to the larger relationship of a sclerotic governmental structure to the needs of a rapidly growing, rapidly changing society.
Even if Schwarzenegger, the Legislature and voters were to adopt every one of the report's dozens of specific recommendations, and they had precisely their predicted effects, the state's larger crisis would remain largely untouched.
All right, one might ask, California needs more, but wouldn't the performance review report be a good starting place? No - because it approaches the issue backwards, and its fate, either positive or negative, would preclude action on the larger dilemma.
If it's largely enacted, Schwarzenegger and others involved will pat themselves on their backs and declare the job of governmental reform to be done. And if it's a failure, which is more than likely, it will poison the political well for more fundamental, meaningful change.
What we need is a fundamental rethinking of how democratic government can function - perhaps even if it can function - in a society as fragmented and complex as California, where consensus on almost any issue is elusive. The overlapping, duplicative and often competitive state and local governmental structures we have created in California may be, as the performance review indicates, impediments to efficient and responsive government, but they, in a sense, merely reflect our lack of social cohesion.
Our goal should be to realign governmental functions and structure to the reality of the era. One small example: California has not changed a county boundary since 1907, even though the state itself has changed in almost every respect since then.
Another: The Legislature's size, 120 members, has been in place even longer, resulting in districts that are too large to be meaningful.
Real reform that would restore public confidence and encourage political participation would blow up boxes on a far grander scale. It would replace counties with regional governments, eliminating thousands of single-purpose entities that often work at cross-purposes; it would create a single-house Legislature of perhaps 300 members, with proportional representation that would include minority parties; it would entertain, at least, the notion of parliamentary-style government to provide more impetus for action and more accountability for results; it would redefine state and local government responsibilities to focus on performing core functions efficiently and effectively, rather than doing too many things poorly; it would embrace technology and flexible service delivery systems; it would overhaul a nonsensical tax system.
Governing California will never be easy, simply because the state is complex and growing more so every day, even as it continues to add millions of people to its population every decade. Growth and diversity produce unique political issues that the present system or even a modestly retooled system cannot address. Fundamental change would be tough work, but Schwarzenegger's ability to command public attention provides a rare opportunity to accomplish it.
The alternative is not attractive - less relevance for those elected to office, continued decline in political participation, more dominance by narrow interests with stakes in the status quo, and more policy-by-initiative. The unseemly budget crisis that we have endured for the past three years would be just the harbinger of a complete governmental collapse.