California Gov. Gavin Newsom has survived a recall election, but that is not his victory. Collecting enough voter signatures to trigger a recall election confirms broad dissatisfaction with government leadership. The actual winner is the recall system itself, which allows voters to express discontent between scheduled elections.

California politics places a premium on citizen participation, building on a rich, at times radical and raw, history linked to the Progressive Movement of the early 20th century. The successful recall of unpopular Gov. Gray Davis in 2003 witnessed a large and bizarre collection of candidates, many of whom made victor Arnold Schwarzenegger appear mild by comparison. The latest California recall election had a similar “inclusive” collection of contenders.

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Arthur I. Cyr is Clausen Distinguished Professor at Carthage College and author of “After the Cold War” (NYU Press and Macmillan). Readers can wrote to him at acyr@carthage.edu.

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