USC logo

End of year

Published by USC Bedrosian Center on

by Raphael Bostic

As we move through the holiday season and approach the end of the semester, it is a good time to take stock of the year that has past. We have had quite an eventful 2012.

The year was also a watershed for governance in California. We had our first elections using the new commission-drawn district lines and the “top 2” primary-general election rules. These important innovations in the rules of the game hold the potential of changing the nature of our elected bodies and the decisions they reach. The years to come will provide a rich body of evidence that will permit an assessment of their success and effectiveness.

2012 was also an election year, and the Bedrosian Center, along with BC partners the Unruh Institute and Annenberg CCLP, followed the campaigns of Barack Obama and Mitt Romney along their roads to the White House. We discussed, analyzed, and offered predictions about the key issues and factors driving the push for election, and then did a postmortem on the historic reelection of the President. The strategies, arguments, and broad societal changes that determined the outcome are sure to change how elections – at both the national and lower levels of government – are run.

Of course, we could not review 2012 without noting the change in BC leadership. Thanks to Professor Mazmanian for his years of leadership and innovation as the Center’s founding director. He established a strong foundation upon which we will be able to build robustly.

In the latter part of 2012, we began new programming designed to allow students, faculty, and the general public to learn from the experiences and insights of prominent leaders and policy-makers. Over the next few months, we will engage with many such pioneers of thought and action. We hope you will attend these and coming away with new thoughts about how to promote effective governance.

It’s been a very good 2012, and 2013 promises to be even better and more interesting and exciting. All of us at the Bedrosian Center wish you a wonderful holiday season and we look forward to seeing you often in the new year!!

Bedrosian Center