- A county of the United States is a local level of government smaller than a state but generally larger than a city or town, in a U.S. state or territory. The actual term "county" describes them in 48 of the 50 states; Louisiana uses the term "parish" and Alaska uses the word "borough." Including those, there are 3,086 counties in the United States, an average of 62 counties per state. The state with the fewest counties is Delaware (three), and the state with the most is Texas (254). In many states, counties are subdivided into townships or towns and may contain other independent, self-governing municipalities.
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California is a
U.S. state located on the
west coast of the
United States. California is the third largest state in the U.S. by area
and the
most populous state in the U.S., as well as the most physically diverse,
with the highest and the lowest points in the
lower 48 states located within 150 miles of each other. If California
were an independent nation, it would have the sixth largest
economy in the world (after the rest of the U.S.,
Japan,
Germany,
Britain and
China; see
economy of California). The state's official nickname is "The Golden
State" in reference to California's 1849
Gold Rush.
[1]
As one of the most demographically diverse states in the nation, California is a dominant force in American culture as well as the nation's economy. It has some of the nation's most important cities, including Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, and San Francisco, and is responsible for many legal and technological innovations. The entire region originally known as California was composed of the Mexican peninsula now known as Baja California and much of the land in the current states of California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona and Wyoming, known as Alta California. In these early times, the boundaries of the Sea of Cortez and the Pacific coast were only partially explored and California was shown on early maps as an island. The name comes from Las sergas de Esplandián (Adventures of Splandian), a 16th century novel, by Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo, where there is an island paradise called California. (For further discussion, see: Origin of the name California.) Pre-European California was one of the
most culturally and linguistically diverse culture areas in Native North
America. Large, settled populations lived on the West Coast and hunted sea
mammals, fished for salmon, and gathered shellfish, while more mobile
hunters and gathering groups in the California interior hunted terrestrial
game and gathered nuts, acorns, and berries. California groups also were
diverse in their political organization with bands, tribes, tribelets, and
on the resource-rich coasts large chiefdoms, such as the Chumash, Pomo and
Salinan. Trade, intermarriage, and military alliances fostered many social
and economic relationships among the diverse groups
California is governed as a
republic, with three
branches of government, the
executive branch consisting of the
Governor of California and the other independently 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
The state's capital is
Sacramento. During California's early history under European control,
the capital was successively located in
Monterey (1775-1849),
San Jose (1849-1851),
Vallejo (1852-1853),
Benicia (1853-1854), and
San Francisco (1862). The capital moved to Sacramento temporarily in
1852 when construction on a State House could not be completed in time in
Vallejo. The capital's final move to Sacramento was on
February 25,
1854 where it has been permanently, except for a four-month temporary
move in 1862 to San Francisco, due to severe flooding in Sacramento.
California's giant judiciary is the largest in the United States (with a total of 1,600 judges, while the federal system has only about 840). It is supervised by the seven Justices of the Supreme Court of California. Justices of the Supreme Court and Courts of Appeal are appointed by the Governor, but are subject to retention by the electorate every 12 years. Judges of the trial courts, the Superior Courts in each county, may be appointed by the Governor or elected directly by the voters, depending on when the vacancy occurs. Superior Court judges serve six-year terms, after which they may run for re-election. Unlike the retention elections for Supreme Court and Court of Appeal justices, Superior Court judges run for re-election in open races, in which other qualified candidates may run as challengers. California's legal system is explicitly based on English common law but carries a few features from Spanish civil law. Capital punishment is a legal form of punishment and the state has the largest "Death Row" population in the country. At the national level, California is represented by two senators and 53 representatives, as of 2005. It has 55 electoral votes in the U.S. Electoral College. (Since California is the most populous state in the Union, its counts of Congressmen and Presidential Electors are also the largest.) The two U.S. Senators from California are Democrats Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer. 33 Democrats and 20 Republicans represent the state in the U.S. House of Representatives. California is considered a strong Democratic state. Once very conservative, having elected conservatives such as Ronald Reagan as governor and William Knowland as Senator, California has flipped sides in recent decades and became a liberal bastion, having elected statewide liberals such as Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer to the Senate. The latter is known for being one of the most liberal members of the US Senate. Even some recent Republican politicians elected statewide, such as Governors Pete Wilson and Arnold Schwarzeneggar are considered members of the more moderate to liberal wing of the national Republican Party. While California is among the most Democratic and liberal states in the nation because of the large concentration of liberal voters in populous areas along the coast, much of California is politically very conservative, notably the Central Valley, the Inland Empire, Orange and San Diego counties, and most inland, eastern, and rural areas. Democratic bastions are mostly coastal and include the entire San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Salinas, Santa Barbara, and Imperial County. The state has supported Democrats in the last four presidential elections. In 2004, Republican President George W. Bush received a majority of votes in more than half the state's 58 counties, but still lost California's 55 electoral votes to John Kerry, who won 54.3% of the popular vote, by a margin of 10 percentage points.
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