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California Is a ‘Vetocracy’

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Ezra Klein: “I grew up in Orange County and now live in San Francisco, and the recall reflects a deeper pathology afflicting the state I love: California is littered with well-meaning ideas to increase democratic participation that have decayed into avenues that organized interests use to foil the public will.”

“We have become what Francis Fukuyama, the Stanford political scientist, calls a ‘vetocracy’ — a system defined by how easy it is, and how many ways there are, to block action.”

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About Political Wire

goddard-bw-snapshotTaegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.

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