Is Perestroika Coming In California?

From Joel Kotkin (a disappointed Jerry Brown voter from 2010) on some positive signs of political change in California as well as his diagnosis of the cause of the system's illness.  Kotkin touches on the same themes laid out by Walter Russell Mead of Bard College in his series on the collapse of the Blue Social Model which you can find here.

Kotkin's article can be found at the Newgeography site which has many interesting articles on state finances, growth policies and urban development.   Some excerpts from the article:

"When Jerry Brown was elected governor for a third time in 2010, there was widespread hope that he would repair the state’s crumbling and dysfunctional political edifice. But instead of becoming a Californian Mikhail Gorbachev, he has turned out to be something more resembling Konstantin Chernenko or Yuri Andropov, an aged hegemon desperately trying to save a dying system."

"As with the old party bosses in Russia, Brown’s distinct lack of courage has only worsened California’s lurch toward fiscal and economic disaster. Yet as the budget woes worsen, other Californians, including some Democrats, are beginning to recognize the need for perestroika in the Golden State. This was most evident in the overwhelming vote last week in two key cities, San Diego and San Jose, to reform public employee pensions, a huge reversal after decades of ever more expansive public union power in the state."

 "California’s “progressive” approach has been enshrined in what is essentially a one-party state that is almost Soviet in its rigidity and inability to adapt to changing conditions. With conservatives, most businesses and taxpayer advocates marginalized, California politics has become the plaything of three powerful interest groups: public-sector unions, the Bay Area/Silicon Valley elite and the greens. Their agendas, largely unrestrained by serious opposition, have brought this great state to its knees."