 |
Business | Industries | Finance | Tax |
| Index: > A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z |
|
|||||
| First Prev [ 1 2 3 4 ] Next Last |
California is governed as a republic, with three branches of government, the executive branch consisting of the Governor of California and the other elected constitutional officers, the legislative branch consisting of the Assembly and Senate, and the judicial branch consisting of the Supreme Court of California and lower courts. The State also allows direct participation of the electorate by referendum, recall, and ratification.
California is unique by having a partisan system for the state government while banning political parties from being involved in county, city, or other local elections.California's constitution is one of the longest laws in the world, taking up over 10,000 sheets of paper. Part of this length is caused by the fact that most voter initiatives take the form of a constitutional amendment, as the state Legislature can easily overturn any law with the governor's consent, while a constitutional amendment requires an election to be ratified.
California's executive branch is headed by the Governor. Other executive positions are the Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General , Secretary of State, State Treasurer , State ControllerThe State Controller is the Chief Financial Officer of the State of California. The State Controller is elected to a four-year term but is limited to two terms. California State Controllers John S. Houston, Democrat, (1849-1852) Winslow S. Pierce, Democra, Insurance Commissioner , and the State Superintendent of Public Instruction . All offices are elected separately to concurrent four-year terms. Each officer may be elected to an office a maximum of two times.
The Governor has the powers and responsibilities to: sign or veto laws passed by the Legislature, including a line item veto; appoint judges, subject to ratification by the electorate; propose a state budget; give the annual State of the State Address; command the state militiaPolitical movements A militia is a group of citizens organized to provide paramilitary service. The word can have four slightly different meanings: an official reserve army composed of non-professional soldiers; the police in Russia or East European count; and grant pardonA pardon is the forgiveness of a crime and the penalty associated with it. It is granted by a sovereign power, such as a monarch. Clemency is an associated term which is the lessening of the penalty of the crime without forgiving the crime itself. The acts for any crime, except cases involving impeachment by the Legislature. The Governor and Lieutenant Governor also serve as ex officio members of the University of CaliforniaThe University of California UC is a public university system within the State of California. It has a combined student body of more than 191,000 students and over 1,340,000 living alumni. The first campus was founded in 1868 in the city of Oakland while Board of Regents.
The Lieutenant Governor is the President of the California Senate and acts as the governor when the Governor is unable to execute the office, including whenever the Governor leaves the state. As the offices are elected separately, the two are likely to be from separate partiesA political party is a political organization subscribing to a certain ideology or formed around very special issues. In party-list proportional representation, parties (and sometimes multi-party cartels) can play a functional role in the voting system. ( Currently the case with Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democrat Lt. Governor Cruz Bustamante), commonly the Lt. Governor will appoint judges to vacant seats and sign bills the Governor would normally veto while he is executing the office.
As for the actual state government which the Governor oversees, it is organized into several dozen departments, of which most (but not all) have been grouped together (somewhat confusingly) into agencies to reduce the number of people who report directly to the Governor. For example, the California Department of Transportation is part of the Business, Transportation, and Housing Agency.
Many of the groupings are bizarre and counterintuitive. The Department of Managed Health Care is part of Business, Transportation, and Housing, rather than the Health and Human Services Agency. And the Department of Industrial Relations (which, among many duties, inspects most elevators in California) is part of the Labor and Workforce Development Agency, not Business, Transportation and Housing.
Some departments are made up of many smaller units. For example, the Department of Consumer Affairs consists of about 40 bureaus, offices and boards which supervise a variety of professions and occupations.
| Politics | Business | Finance |
 |
 |
 |
|