If you find yourself with only a week or two to squeeze coverage of California politics in to your intro to American government class, CQ Press has the perfect solution: a short, engaging—and inexpensive—primer, available in time for your fall courses!

Giving students the right level of detail, yet underscoring the essentials for understanding how the state’s political system works, author Renee Van Vechten delivers on the basics. Concise chapters offer up nuts-and-bolts information while showing how a unique set of rules and a rich political history are key to getting a handle on the Golden state. Photos, cartoons, maps, tables, and figures help to make this supplement a go-to resource.

DISCOUNTED PACKAGES

Package California Politics: A Primer with your American Government text!

Option 1: ISBN 978-1-60871-277-9
California Politics: A Primer with:
Keeping the Republic, 4th Edition (Full) + The First Year: Obama in the Oval Office

Option 2: ISBN 978-1-60871-278-6
California Politics: A Primer with: 
Keeping the Republic, 4th Edition (The Essentials) + The First Year: Obama in the Oval Office

Option 3: ISBN 978-1-60871-279-3
California Politics: A Primer with:
Keeping the Republic, Brief 3rd Edition + The First Year: Obama in the Oval Office

Option 4: ISBN 978-1-60871-280-9
California Politics: A Primer with:
The Logic of American Politics, 4th Edition + The First Year: Obama in the Oval Office

1: Introduction: Principles for Understanding California Politics
• Choices are at the heart of politics
• Politics is the process of working together to solve problems
• People use institutions to reach goals
• Rules, history, and opportunity matter

2: Critical Junctures: A Brief History
• Historical foundations
• Statehood and Gold Rush days
• Southern Pacific Railroad monopoly
• Progressive movement and reforms
• Influence of special interests
• Initiative and recall “earthquakes”
• Importance of population expansion and immigration

3: Direct Democracy
• Direct democracy as a “separate but equal” force in governing
• The initiative, recall, and referendum
• Historically significant propositions
• Recall of Davis
• Constraining government officials
• Immigration policy

4: The State Legislature
• Representation
• Lawmaking process
• Impact of term limits
• Leaders and their powers
• Education policy

5: The Executive Branch
• The governor
• Powers of the nine constitutional executive offices and Board of Equalization
• Complexity of administrative branch
• Environmental policy

6: The Court System
• Supreme court
• Appeals courts
• Superior courts
• Jury system
• “Three strikes” law
• Prison maintenance and overcrowding

7: Other Governments
• County government
• Municipal government
• Special districts
• Regional government
• Tribal governments
• Relationship to Congress

8: State Budgeting
• Budget cycle
• Department of Finance & Legislative Analyst
• Sources of revenues and outflows
• Bonds, taxes, and fees

9: Parties Elections, & Campaigns
• Party in the electorate
• Party in government
• Party organizations
• Types of elections
• Campaigning

10: Concluding Thoughts: California’s Distinctive Past and Present

Appendices:
• List of Counties, including median income per county
• Names of Constitutional officers and leaders of the legislature, including salaries
• Names of recent Speakers of the Assembly, Senate Presidents Pro Tem, and Governors

Renée B. Van Vechten is assistant professor of political science at the University of Redlands, where she teaches courses primarily in American Government and California Politics.  She received her Ph.D. in political science from the University of California, Irvine.  In 2002-03, she was a Kevin Starr Fellow in California Studies, and in 2008, was honored with the American Political Science Association's only national teaching award, the Rowman and Littlefield Award for Innovative Teaching in Political Science.  A lifelong resident of Southern California, she has spent the better part of her graduate and professional life studying, writing, and lecturing about California institutions.