Peter Schrag presents the ills of Californiafs current politics in an angry and persuasive tone. He says California used to be gboth model and magnet for the nation—in its economic opportunities, its social outlook, and its high-quality public services and institutesh; however, California started to fade after the passage of Proposition 13, the initiative of tax limits (7). Schragfs work clearly shows what is the problem in todayfs California, and it is easy to understand even for those who have little knowledge of politics. By focusing on issues of gneopopulismh which is easy to find in Californiafs diversity, he succeeds in giving his readers the sense of crisis not only about Californiafs politics, but also the national wide politics because California is the place gwhere the new American society is first coming into full viewh (23). Schrag says, about California politics, that:
            
             For nearly a generation, there has been increasing focus among scholars, politicians, and journalists on the growing gaps in California—ethic, social, economic—between those who exercise political power and the larger population, and particularly those who are the most immediate users of its public services. What has gotten little discussion is the dynamic of the plebiscitary process itself. While itfs ad hoc in nature—each measure is decided by voters on its own apparent merits without much reference to the wider context—it has a larger cumulative effect through which statewide majorities restrict the powers of local political majorities, which are often nonwhite. Almost by definition, it is also a device of impulse that tends to be only marginally respectful of minority rights or interests, and that lends itself to demagogic wedge campaigns designed to boost voter turnout for other political purpose. (21)
            
             Schrag divides his project into five sections. The middle sections, gThe Spirit...