Is California beyond repair? The state is mired in perpetual budget crisis and its government is paralyzed by partisan gridlock... Frustrated Californians know something is wrong, but not what's broken and how it can be fixed... Groups across the political spectrum are pushing reforms, even a constitutional convention...     In California Crackup, Joe Mathews and Mark Paul provide clear and informed answers. Their fast-paced and often humorous narrative deftly exposes the origins of our current political and fiscal problems—from the ugly 1879 constitutional convention to Hiram Johnson’s Progressive reforms to the Prop 13 tax revolt and its legacy of supermajority requirements and voter initiatives. Mathews and Paul then furnish a uniquely California fix: innovative solutions that allow Californians to debate their choices, settle on the best ones, hold elected officials accountable for results, and choose anew if something doesn’t work. Concise, lively, and provocative, California Crackup offers something new: a genuinely democratic operating system for the state.