Excellent California Commentary
Louis Warren, guesting at Edge of the American West, has a fantastic post explaining the role of the 2/3rds majority to raise taxes or pass a budget in my home state’s horrific fiscal mess. More generally, Warren makes the point that requiring supermajorities is a huge obstacle not only to progressive change, but to effective governance more generally. The fact that such an arrangement, in California at least, arose during the Progressive Era at the behest of good governance campaigners (along with the initiative system) is a sad historical irony.
