SACRAMENTO, CALIF. ? California has enacted first-in-the-nation laws this year on family leave, auto emissions and stem-cell research.

Lawmakers elsewhere look at California laws for direction.

“If it works in California, it is likely to work in states throughout the country,” said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics in Charlottesville, Va. “The states are the laboratories for democracy, and California is the chief laboratory.”

National firsts in California this year include a law explicitly allowing embryonic stem cell research, the country’s toughest auto emissions laws and a requirement that 20 percent of the state’s power come from renewable energy sources by 2017.

Earlier this week, Gov. Gray Davis signed the nation’s first comprehensive paid family leave law, which allows workers to leave their job for up to six weeks at 55 percent pay to care for a newborn, newly adopted child or sick family member.

Also, the gun-control movement pushed a measure this year making California the first state to repeal gun manufacturers’ special immunity against lawsuits. Davis signed the bill Wednesday.