2. Chapter 13 – Arnold!
Stewardship or Squandered
Legacy?
• California’s Political Movements
– California began as a Republican state and remained
that way for its first 110 years.
– It was conservative and oligarchic until 1910 when it
fused with reform-oriented Progressivism which
contained both liberal and conservative impulses.
– California housed a cultural explosion in the mid
twentieth century that included political
changes, feminism, drug usage, corporate control and
sexual exploration and got a reputation for kookiness.
– The Free Speech Movement of 1964 began at the UC
Berkley campus and resulted in the greatest mass
arrest in California history with 750 students being
taken in.
– The “hippie” movement began in San Francisco
around the same time with the gathering of 20,000
hippies in the Great Meadow of Golden State Park.
3. Chapter 13 – Arnold!
Stewardship or Squandered
Legacy?
• California’s Social System
– Following World War II, California school test scores ranked
them among the best in the nation.
– By 1990 California had dropped to the lowest ranking state
in terms of test scores and dollars spent on elementary and
middle school education.
– In 1996, the state authorized almost $1 billion in spending
to reduce class sizes. 43% of the states budget was going to
K-12 education.
– California is sustaining one of the largest ranges of state
supported health and social welfare programs.
– The 1994 Three Strikes and Your Out Law was
overwhelming California’s prison system.
– Proposition 13, which reduced property taxes by 57% and
put a cap on future property taxation greatly impacted the
revenue streams for the state.
– Natural disasters from the late 1980’s to the end of the
twentieth century were alleviated by hundreds of millions
of dollars from state and local governments.
4. Chapter 13 – Arnold!
Stewardship or Squandered
Legacy?
• Arnold Schwarzenegger
– Was elected to be governor of California in 2003 by an
overwhelming 48.6 percent of the total votes cast.
– He was a poor immigrant from Austria and had made
a name for himself as Mr. Universe, an actor, a real
estate investor, a college graduate, and finally a
political activist.
– He was able to get voters to approve a cap on
spending, create a reserve fund, and vote in a bond to
deal with shortfalls without collapsing social
programs.
– Schwarzenegger used his popularity to negotiate with
different groups and ask them to take cuts.
– His ability to empathize with the majority immigrant
state.
