There are all sorts of problems with the process that has made Arnold Schwarzenegger governor of California. The numbers needed for a recall seem too small, the mechanics of US elections are chaotic, and the first-past-the-post (plurality) system induces lots of strategic voting.
But the idea of recall is a good one, directly opposed to the notion that governments are entitled to a set term of office, the longer the better, that dominates Australian discussion of issues such as four-year terms. The more democratic checks on government, the better.
As regards the outcome, I can’t say I endorse it, but it’s easy to make the case that, considering the feasible outcomes from the viewpoint of the average Californian, Schwarzenegger looked like the best of a bad bunch. Whatever merits Davis might have had (and they were far from obvious) and whatever the role of adverse circumstances (clearly dominant) his administration had failed, and, in a democratic system, the usual response to failure is to let someone else have a go.
John Quiggin 
Pr Q seems to think that Republican disruption of US electoral practice are a good sign of populist influence on government.
That shows a touching faith in how Republicans play politics in the post-Gingrich age.
writing for Slate Chatterbox quotes the NYT report of Bill Clinton claiming that the Recall is part of a pattern of Republican democracy-subversion within the US:
Chatterbox concludes that Republicans are:
If AS owes anything to the Republican party apparat then I would not want to be a Californian dependent on state public services over the next few years.
The fact is that Arnie is a lot smarter and shrewder than many of his detractors think. Also he’s one of the few liberal Republicans to get into power for a while which is always a good thing – if this amount of vitriol is being directed at a liberal Republican then …
He actually hosted one of the ‘Free to Choose’ series produced by Milton and Rose Friedman so he may even be a closet libertarian (though a little too libertarian with his hands). Speaking of his groping allegatoon, for chrissake, what double standards! At least he didn’t expose himself like Willie Clit-tongue.
Jack you’re going nuts after your retraction from your last extreme views on the war – how exactly did Arnie steal this election?
As a general matter of principle, I agree with John about the more democratic checks the better … and I feel absolutely mega strongly against any move to have less checks (such as four-year terms … although I concede there is a difficult trade-off argument here if the term is fixed) … yet, a more intensly democratic system also necessarily implies that more responsibility is placed on citizens and … like any other endeavour in life … this implies lifting the level of knowledge, education etc about the limits and possibilities of exercising that responsibility in government.
As it stands, I fear unilateral left-field coups such as Arnie’s are tantamount to a change of characters in a reality TV show. I hope not.
Jason,
I am not nuts, but perhaps your cognitive skills are in decline. I did not say that Arnie stole the Californian election. I reported Clinton’s claim that the Recall was part of the Republican’s
Please pay attention!
The Recall is recall is not undemocratic as such. But it must be seen in context as part of a pattern of Republican subversion of normal electoral processes.
But Jason is correct in one respect. The Iraq war has made me thorougly disenchanted with the Republicans. The pervasive lying that characterised the Republican party’s general attempt to organise the Iraq War went far beyond the incidental raison d’etat deceits that machiavellians resort to to preserve secrecy in times of national security crisis.
The Republican’s major program is built on deceit.
Their extreme Right wing policies are not sufficiently popular to attract majority support.
They must lie to win.
Moreover, their policies are not just implemented as an effect of partisan power. Their policies are designed to enhance partisan power. They are waging a campaign to build a:
one-faction party
one-party state
one-state world
This can be seen by Bush’s Scorched Earth Campaign
This goes for both arenas:
national: partisan dominance
global:: state hegemony
The Republicans do not intend their tendency to interrupt electrol processes to be bipartisan, they are attempting to lock in power for the next decade:
The Republican policies, and processes, are all about maximising their power: liberty of action.
They are a rogue party that aims at domination.
They must be stopped.
Well, I agree with John that from this (long) distance Arnie looked no worse than the alternatives once the recall was held; at least he’ll give entertainment, and it ought to make those conservative hypocrites shut up about politicians’ sex lives for a while.
And Jack, given their budget problems and referendum-imposed tax caps I would not like to be a Californian dependent on public services *whatever* the election results – they’ll have to have an axe taken to them regardless (only the far-right Repub candidate was honest about that – he thought it a Good Thing!). Expect to see middle-class Californians sending their kids to private schools as a matter of course; the poorer ones will get no schooling at all to speak of.
On the notion of recalls I reckon having a mechanism for them is good, but the barriers need to be so high that they only happen in extraordinary circumstances; normal political lying aint enough. Perhaps require a very large petition and a large supermajority at the recall election.
Apropos this, some Dem bloggers are already talking about a recall after Arnie the Barbarian wields that axe.
This election was about politics as well as personality. Jason & Pr Q are correct in asserting that the election result did represent populist pressure. Californian voter turnout was high, ~70% of registered voters cast votes.
This was 50-100% higher than California’s recent voter turnouts:
– 44% in the 2000 Presidential election,
– 36% in the 2002 Congressional elections
– 30% in the 2002 Gubernatorial elections.
My criticism referred to the process, not the outcome.
The Californian gubernatorial election was a victory for conservative white voters.
The combined Republican vote (AS & McClintock) was 61%, almost twice what the Democrat (Buzamanate) candidate got (32%).
This result is at least 50% better than the average ~40% Republican voters for the last three major Californian elections.
Even more significantly, the two Republican candidates got about 2/3 (65%) of the white vote.
Class was not a good predictor of votes: 52% of union household members voted Republican.
California’s hegemonic ethnic minority (non-Hispanic whites) is quietly flexing it’s muscles by shifting to the Right.
The Republicans also did better than the Califonian average amongst minorities. AS & McC got 39% of Hispanic votes & 23% of blacks vote, the black vote was double what Bush got in 2000.
This is because minority voters dislike pandering to illegal immigrants, since they compete for low skilled jobs, social services and evidently are more prone to crime.
Overall, Republicans can be pleased in that the result indicated that California, a traditional Democratic stronghold, may be tilting to the Right at the state level, just as New York state has Right-tilted.
THis tilt probably represents a citizenship orientation amongst law-abiding types, and the Republicans have the edge in the US on this issue, just as the Liberals do in Australia.