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5/3/2015
The purpose of the Human Development Index is to record the development of “People’s
freedoms and opportunities and improving their well­being.” (Portrait, 12) It is meant emphasize
the experience of ordinary people, including the economic, social, legal, psychological, cultural,
environmental, and political process that shape the range of options available to us through
statistical analysis. (2014, Portrait of California) And is measured on a scale of 1.0 ­10.0, 1.0
being the worst in terms of overall development and 10.0 being the greatest in overall
development. The study broke apart California into 5 different “states”; One percent California,
Elite California, Main Street California, Struggling California, and Disenfranchised California.
Each California having their own measurements of health, education, and earnings. When
reading through the material I noticed a difference between how we educate people from a
higher class background and how we educate those in lower class backgrounds.
The way that the data analysis was gathered for this section in the study focused on
school enrollment for the age group 3­24 years old and educational degree attainment for those
25 and older. According to the HD index adults in One percent California have greater chance of
earning a professional degree than those who are from Struggling California and
Disenfranchised California. This lead me to my question; does the government focus more on
those with wealth and power over those who have little to no wealth or power? There are many
ways to interpret the data sets presented in “A Portrait of California”, however I chose to
interpret these data through the theory of hegemony and the concept of world systems
analysis. Gramsci’s theory of Hegemony expresses the relations of dominant culture and
intellectual and moral leadership roles within a society that control what we do and say without

2. force. Part of this theory of hegemony includes Spontaneous Consent, which is just that;
exercising authority without force.
Gramsci’s theory is applicable here because the more uneducated a person is the least
likely it is for that person to cause an uproar against the government and never question
authority because they will assume that authority is right. This is what is called Spontaneous
Consent. We maintain spontaneous consent when we stop thinking about what we want to say
and start saying and agreeing to the way things are. We conform to whatever ideology is being
pushed on us with or without the corrosiveness of the state. These Ideas start to appear to be
natural and normal because the state has organized us to consent to the set social structure
and leaves no room for the thought of anything else. In comparison to the rest of the California's
the model presented in the literature shows a shift in numbers that correlate to the focus on
those with higher status. (Correlation does not cause causation.) Not only is this shift seen in
education, it’s also seen across the board in other categories. (Table on page 48)
One could argue that those in power have a vested interest in keeping us ignorant so
they can control what information you need to know from the information you want to know. So,
the more people that are uneducated will outnumber the people who are educated and in turn
leave room for those in power to manipulate those who are uneducated and sway them in a
preferred direction. An example of this is if you meet someone for the first time and you know
nothing about them but your best friend tells you that this person is talking smack behind your
back and is not a very good individual chances are that you will believe your friend without any
hesitation, and you too will begin to form a dislike toward that person. By not knowing or
questioning the authority of your best friend you have participated in spontaneous consent by
allowing him or her to control your thoughts on this one individual. Circling back to Gramsci
and the “A Portrait of California” we also see many examples of Cultural Hegemony within the

3. text. Cultural Hegemony suggests that the domination of a diverse ruling class manipulates the
choices of that society.
When taking a look into the HD Index we see that parts of the entire state of California
that have high populations of Latinos are the least educated and are the most impoverished.
These areas include Struggling California and Disenfranchised California. 51.7% of Struggling
CA is Latino, and Disenfranchised CA has 71.3% of a Latino population, these portions of the
state are the areas that need the most people for labor (Central Valley, Migrant Ag workers) and
are also the places that provide cheap land to live on (Inland Empire/Mojave Desert newly
settled immigrants). The education in these areas lags because the majority of the people that
live in the areas come from families who have little to no understanding of it means to be
educated. If you put a teacher,who comes from middle class status and who has a bachelors or
masters degree as their highest level of education, in these areas to teach K­12 grade students
they will more than likely ignore the student's potential success because the student will be put
off to the side and won’t be encouraged to earn a higher level of education. This is in connection
with Gramsci’s other concept of total social control. this is when the state has organized its
people to consent through the means of hegemony which have agreed to a set social structure.
The teacher already has a preconceived idea of how the student is to act and if the student acts
in another manner the student is breaking the set social construct which leads the teacher to
discipline the student in a manner that can cause the student to lose interest in school.
Though Gramsci’s concept of hegemony does a good job at analyzing most of the data
presented,the World Systems Analysis as presented by Wallerstein further explains how we get
the numbers that we do in this study of California. World Systems Analysis is based on the
assumption that all social systems are formed, maintained and destroyed through conflict.
According to Wallerstein there are only two types of world systems; World empires and world

4. economies. World empires are those based on political and military domination. Both of which
function in the sense of a core, which has the most power because it is the most developed and
controls most of the trade; semiperiphery, which is the intermediate in terms of wealth, political
autonomy and degree of economic diversity; and then finally the periphery, which is the most
powerless with a narrow economic base of agricultural products or minerals often providing
cheap labor for multinational corporations. Comparing this concept to the text of “A Portrait of
California” we can break down and classify all five “California's” into one of these categories;
Core, Periphery, and Semiperiphery.
There are two Californias that fit into to the core, One Percent California, and Elite
Enclave California. According to the world systems model, One Percent California is in the
Core, because it uses the most resources to maintain itself and those who live within it. This
California is made up of highly educated, highly paid professionals that consists of the
innovation of technology. Also is the healthiest out of the five (50­52) The Elite Enclave
California is second to the one percent because this is full of the people with financial comfort
and security in upscale neighborhoods. And the children of these individuals have not yet
suffered through a divorced. The high cost of this section excludes most Californians. (54­57) In
both of these models of Califonia most people are able to live lavishly,are able to afford health
benefits, are highly educated and fewer children face any negative repercussions. They fit into
the core because they meet the requirements of having: High wages, import raw materials from
other “California's”, have high investments, and have better welfare services that provide better
health conditions for those residents.
Next, we take a look at Main Street California and we see that this California has a
45.5% white population that live in suburban areas. The education levels of adults in these
areas range from high school diploma to professional degrees which helps make them a part of

5. the middle class by being able to have higher income than Struggling California and
Disenfranchised California, but not enough to put them into Core along with The One Percent
and The Elite Enclave. We can classify them into the semi periphery because they enjoy the
comfort of wealth but, means that individual families still have to budget their finances. Also, I
went ahead and classified both Struggling CA and Disenfranchised CA, into the periphery. The
periphery are areas in which these is a lack of welfare services, and a below than average
wage.It is the most powerless due to its narrow economic base. These areas are often subject
to providing cheap labor for multinational corporations.
Both Struggling California and Disenfranchised California fit the definition of that model.
Both are used as main points of extraction of not only food to feed the entire state of California
but as a labor extraction zone. (62­69) Also because the majority of these Californians lack
educational and welfare services. The cycle of not having enough money and poor welfare
services connects to having poor health because if you are a person who lives in this area and
become sick you will more than likely refuse any medical attention due to the fact that you have
no money and that the welfare services in your area will not cover the cost of whatever is wrong
with you. Therefore leaving the people here suffering through adverse health risks. These
California’s also lag in having ​a higher​ education other than some high school because many of
these people are migrant workers that have newly immigrated from other non English speaking
countries so therefore most parents will need help in the fields so they can make more money
for the family in turn neglecting any education. Lastly, a pattern that I noticed within the children
who are not attending preschool in these Californias is that if they don’t attend preschool and
their parents don’t have high levels of education they lack motivation to go out and get a
bachelors much less a graduate level degree.

6. Overall I used both Gramsci’s theory of Hegemony and Wallerstein's world systems
analysis to show the split between the higher classes and the lower classes presented in “A
Portrait of California” both theories are need to interpret the data and see that the more
uneducated and less money an individual is, the easier it is for governments to manipulate
areas such as the areas in California’s periphery out of their resources. What I learned though
this is that no one will question authority if they are not educated on the subject. Thats why we
saw that One percent California stays at the top because they are the ones with a voice and
power to bring changes to their communities.