As 2013 gets under way, a striking statistic hangs over California. In 2011 the state spent about 7.5 per cent of its budget on its sprawling network of public schools. But it also spent 11 per cent on its prison system.

Yes, you read that correctly: the US’s so-called “Golden State” is now devoting more resources to locking up its adults than educating its kids. This is partly because crime rates have risen while voters have blocked increases in taxes for schools. It is hard to imagine a more dispiriting pattern, particularly given its implications for future growth.

So whose fault is this? And what, if anything, can ordinary citizens do to change it? That is the question raised in a fascinating book about political governance (from which the above statistics are drawn): Intelligent Governance for the 21st Century, by Nicolas Berggruen, an investor-cum-philanthropist, and Nathan Gardels, a Californian journalist.