How Did California Become Such a Dysfunctional State?

Governor Schwarzenegger and the Legislature are in the midst of re-writing the social contract, cutting education and services to poor children, the elderly, the blind and disabled. Debates over those measures are being held in public. Big tax cuts for major corporations have already been made, but they were negotiated in private. It’s not only because of the economic decline. How did it happen in the eighth largest economy in the world, a place where living standards have attracted millions of immigrants from almost every other country?