Section 4 Flashcards

CA Development

39.5 million

Population of California

45%

Percentage of people who speak 2+ languages in California

infrastructure

It’s impossible to keep up with good ___________ when you have a large and consistently growing population (reason why parking, freeways, and traffic is bad here in California)

1849

Year the California Constitution is created 

1850

Year that California becomes and official state

Treaty of Guadalupe

• Created after the Mexican-American War

• Promises:

  • All laws in the state of California will have to be written in English & in Spanish

  • Mexicans who were living in the U.S. during the Mexican-American war would be granted citizenship or had the right to relocate in California

  • Granted full civil rights to Mexicans who were currently living in California 

Mendez v. Westminister 

• Establishes that segregation in public spaces for Mexican-Americans is unconstitutional 

• Civil rights aren’t quite realized yet, segregation is still and issue during this time

Referendums

• The ability to stop laws/legislation that have already passed into law through popular vote

• Need a certain amount of signatures 

• People get the chance to vote for the law to stay or be repealed 

• Creates more accountability to the people

  • Stops laws from taking effect without expression permission

  • Citizens are more likely to pay attention to what their representatives are doing and hold them accountable

Recalls

• The ability to remove any state or locally elected officials

• Any official from school board members, judges, and even the governor can all be recalled

Constitutional Amendment Initiative

• Initiative that amends the Constitution of California

• Needs 8% of previous governor’s election vote (8% of people who voted in the last governor’s election) to be on the ballot (not to pass, just to get on the ballot)

• Empowers interest groups 

  • Interest groups have plenty of resources and money to push for initiative signatures (e.g. pay for advertising, phone banks, people to harass you to sign lol)

• Once on the ballot, simple majority of voters needed to pass (more than 50%) 

Statutory Initiatives

• Initiative to make new/amend state statues (state laws/policies)

• 5% of number of voters from last gubernatorial (fancy word for governor) election 

• Much easier to get on ballot than constitutional amendment initiative (by design)

  • Making a statue is easier than an amendment (which on purpose, amendments are harder by design)

  • For reference: In order to get a rid of an amendment in the national Constitution, you have to create a new one that cancels out the amendment you want to get rid of (this is dumb)

• Government & legislators can’t do anything to repeal any statutory initiatives; SC of California can overturn a statutory initiative if they conflict with the State Constitution 

• Easier to repeal

• Can come up on a general election ballot or a special election ballot

What makes the CA constitution unique 

• Recognizes and protects the existence of county & city governments unlike the national constitution.

• Good amount of autonomy, or self government

• Addresses charter cities

Charter Cities

Cities that are established through petitioning

Reasons for weak political parties in CA

• People elect a party’s nominee

  • Party bosses aren’t being held accountable by their party, rather being accounted for by the people

  • More power to the people than the party itself

• Nonpartisan Elections

  • Candidates don’t have their party name listed on the ballot

  • Parties can’t extend their name to the people —> less power

  • Hard to engage in straight ticket voting

Party Bosses

People who hold a significant amount of power/leadership in a political party 

Straight Ticket Voting

When a person votes for all candidates within a single party on a voting ballot

Top Two System

• AKA: Top Two Primary

• Top two nominees with the most votes go on into the election