Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Administering California's state government is the responsibility of the executive branch;
administering the branch and providing overall political leadership for the entire state
falls on the governor. In Chapter 8, we survey the office of the governor, other executive
offices, plus a sizable bureaucracy -- all of whom compete for power and leadership in
the Golden State. We're going to be talking about how governors lead, governor's duties
and powers, the plural executive: someone competing for power, the California bureaucracy
and the politics of diversity. First, how governors lead. State governors perform many
the same tasks as the American president; that's certainly true in California. It's
a complex pattern of political leadership. The governor is at the top of the political
system and is more powerful than any individual. The executive branch represents the state's
population, yet the branch also exhibits its own form of hyper pluralism. It has diluted
and shared power, politically independent offices and agencies, many avenues for interest
group influence, resulting in numerous roadblocks to leadership. Let's take a quick look at
California governors from 1849. The state Constitution limits the governor's powers.
A couple of points to keep in mind: few early governors are memorable to contemporary Californians,
the California governorship has been a rapidly revolving door and the lengthy service of
governors is a recent phenomenon -- the two-term limit for governors, that's a relatively recent
phenomenon that governors serve eight years. The governor's salary is $173,562 -- that's
among the nation's highest. There are a number of variables that affect the leadership for
the governor. The governor's personality, his political skill, the resources that they
have available to them politically. The factors in the environment such as the economy, what's
the electorate's ideology, and what's the public's confidence in the future of California.
There are also strategic considerations whether you're looking at large-scale infrastructure
projects like Gov. Brown is proposing today with high-speed rail and the Delta tunnels
or the Master Plan for Education. Let's take a look at the governor's powers and duties
-- his executive powers, budget leadership, legislative powers, judicial powers and some
other powers he has. Executive powers. He organizes his personal staff, he makes appointments
to various administrative, board and commission posts and also judicial posts. He manages
the executive branch. You can take a look at figure 8.1 in your text, that shows the
bureaucracy that he manages, and a governor can also issue executive orders. Gov. Brown,
for instance, issued an order mandating a 50% cut in cell phone smartphone use by government
agencies. He also has budget leadership responsibilities. He's required to submit a budget to the legislature
in the first 10 days of the calendar year. The budget is something that requires the
governor's constant attention. The internal budget process starts in the previous July.
The governor submits a budget/price letter to all agencies and departments. The budget
letter contains his policy priorities; the price letter contains fiscal assumptions.
That starts the internal process. All departments and agencies look at the budget and see what
kind of resources they can get in the governor's proposal. Once the budget is submitted, it
pits the governor against the legislature. The governor shares power with the Assembly
Budget Committee, Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee and the Legislative Analyst's
Office. Part of the external budget process involves negotiations between the governor
and leaders of the Democratic and Republican caucuses in the Senate and Assembly -- that's
what's known as the Big Five: the governor and those four leaders. The Legislature enacts
the budget by June 15, and the governor has to sign the budget by June 30 of each year.
Once the budget is passed, the governor, who has given up some powers or shares powers
during the negotiation process, has some power through the line-item veto where he can he
can veto particular items in the budget. Governor's legislative powers. A number of areas that
product conflict. There are party differences -- you see divided government mainly in recent
years involving Republican governors and Democratic legislatures. You've seen clashes on taxes,
welfare spending, and many other issues. You see constituency differences -- the governor
represents the entire state and legislators represent a particular district in the state.
You have interest differences -- the governor represents larger interests and legislative
may be more responsive to the individual interest groups. And clearly responsibility differences
along the same lines -- the governor is responsible to the entire state and legislators are responsible
to a particular district. Here are the governor's legislative powers quickly. A governor presents
a legislative program, generally through the State of the State address and also through
media events. Also legislatively, the governor can veto a bill -- he can reject entire bills.
He can call special sessions to deal with pressing matters. For instance, Arnold Schwarzenegger
called a special session on prison overcrowding. And the governor also has some power through
personal relations in the legislative arena. We saw Gov. Reagan cultivate the press corps.
Govs. Warren and Pat Brown had good relations with the media to advance their legislative
agenda. And Gov. Schwarzenegger, with his popularity at some point in this term, he
could "go public" -- go directly to the public to get them to support his legislative agenda
as well as urge get them to pressure the Legislature. The governor has judicial powers. He has appointment
power --California Supreme Court, Courts of Appeals and he can also fill vacancies at
the Superior Court level. He also has the power of clemency -- he has powers of pardon,
commutation, reprieves, reversing parole decisions, and extraditions of the fugitives to other
states. And in the judicial arena, the governor, along with the Attorney General, also decides
which court cases the state will pursue at the appellate level. Other powers. The governor
is commander-in-chief of the California National Guard. He can send troops in for local riots
or disturbances. One of the more recent ones is where Gov. Schwarzenegger sent 1,000 troops
to the California/Mexico border to help federal border enforcement. Governors also are chiefs
of state -- welcomes foreign dignitaries, addresses interest group conventions, and
accompanies presidents traveling in California, things like that. But the governor is really
one of an array of executive officials who are separately elected and politically independent.
That's the hyperpluralism we see. The lieutenant governor is probably the least threatening
of the other elected officials, at least to the governor. The lieutenant governor sits
on various boards, becomes acting governor when the governor leaves the state. Only six
lieutenant governors have become governor, and reformers would really like to abolish
this position because of the lack of substantive power and responsibilities. The Attorney General,
on the other hand, is quite powerful, considered the second most powerful position in state
government. Governors Warren, both Browns and Dukemejian all served as attorney general.
The attorney general has responsibilities in criminal matters and in civil matters as
well, as you can see. The Secretary of State is essentially a clerk of records and elections.
Some of the responsibilities included preparing and distributing statewide voter pamphlets,
processing candidate papers, certifying initiative petitions, publishing election results, responsibilities
such as those. The Superintendent of Public Instruction is officially a nonpartisan position,
the only nonpartisan executive branch position. The position really shares responsibility
with the state Department of Education and the State Board of Education, and, even though
80% of school funding flows through that office, the actual task of education takes place in
local school districts. You also have the Insurance Commissioner, you can see the responsibilities
there. Other fiscal officers are the state comptroller, the state treasurer and the state
Board of equalization. You can see their responsibilities there as well. Let's spend a minute talking
about state bureaucracy. Roughly 350,000 state employees, about 130,000 are governed by the
UC/CSU tenure and hiring practices. Most of the rest are hired through the civil service
process, and the majority work in either the two university systems or the public safety
area -- prisons, Highway Patrol, Department of Justice and the court system. The state's
bureaucracy, the primary purpose is implementation. It carries out policies and laws approved
by the Legislature and voters. Except in higher education, most agencies coordinate their
activities with similar local government agencies. Bureaucracy shares power with the federal
government, and most federal-aid passes through the agencies, sort of a picket fence where
the communication goes up and down the line among those levels. Finally, there's been
some talk about executive branch reform. There are about 340 separate boards and commissions
that share power with the executive branch. Gov. Schwarzenegger had a report -- he had
275 people in the California Performance Review -- produced a report calling for eliminating
12,000 jobs, abolishing 118 boards and commissions, and streamlining other agencies. Not much
progress in that area. Gov. Brown in 2012 did have some success with reform -- eliminated
50 boards and commissions and other entities that saved $10 million. Please use this PowerPoint,
as well as the other information in your Course Documents, to prepare for your weekly quiz.
Good luck!