THE PEOPLE'S MACHINE California voters passed Proposition 13 in 1978. At the  same time, a champion bodybuilder named Arnold  Schwarzenegger was becoming a movie star. Over the past  quarter century, the twin arts of direct democracy (through  ballot initiatives designed to push the public to the polls on  election day) and blockbuster moviemaking (through  movies designed to push the public to the theaters on  opening weekend) grew up together, at home in California.  With the state's recall election in 2003, direct democracy  and blockbuster movies officially merged. The result:  Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.  In The People's Machine, political reporter Joe  Mathews, who covered Schwarzenegger's gubernatorial  campaign for the Los Angeles Times and who has subsequently  broken many front page stories about him, traces  the roots of both movie and political populism, how  Schwarzenegger used these twin forces to win election  and, especially, how he has used them to govern.  "Let the people decide," said Governor  Schwarzenegger after his inauguration. The People's  Machine, through remarkable access and whip-smart  analysis—there is news in this book—reports on whether  this system of governing proves blessing, curse, or mess,  and on the remarkable Austrian bodybuilder, movie star,  and political man with the nerve to carry it out.