Pub Date : 2023-11-03DOI: 10.1177/0160323x231208958
Shuwen Zhang, Mashal-E- Zehra
There is limited evidence on how local governments adopt formal contractual mechanisms to hold partners accountable and mitigate defection in the context of differing power dynamics. What kind of monitoring mechanisms do local governments choose to check opportunism and align incentives as they delegate service provision to another actor? Does the choice of monitoring mechanisms vary if the partner government is another local government, higher-level government, or a non-government actor? Does the choice of monitoring mechanisms used by local governments vary by the nature of service provision? To explore these questions, we examine a randomly selected sample of 163 public service contracts involving local governments in Iowa. Our findings suggest that the use of monitoring mechanisms is not homogenous and varies across different service areas and collaboration directions. In practice, our findings are useful for enhancing local governments’ internal contract management capacity for preventing contract failure, establishing accountability, and mitigating risk.
{"title":"Exploring Accountability Choices in Service Contracts for Collaborative Public Safety Services Provision","authors":"Shuwen Zhang, Mashal-E- Zehra","doi":"10.1177/0160323x231208958","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0160323x231208958","url":null,"abstract":"There is limited evidence on how local governments adopt formal contractual mechanisms to hold partners accountable and mitigate defection in the context of differing power dynamics. What kind of monitoring mechanisms do local governments choose to check opportunism and align incentives as they delegate service provision to another actor? Does the choice of monitoring mechanisms vary if the partner government is another local government, higher-level government, or a non-government actor? Does the choice of monitoring mechanisms used by local governments vary by the nature of service provision? To explore these questions, we examine a randomly selected sample of 163 public service contracts involving local governments in Iowa. Our findings suggest that the use of monitoring mechanisms is not homogenous and varies across different service areas and collaboration directions. In practice, our findings are useful for enhancing local governments’ internal contract management capacity for preventing contract failure, establishing accountability, and mitigating risk.","PeriodicalId":52260,"journal":{"name":"State and Local Government Review","volume":"20 9","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135868123","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-21DOI: 10.1177/0160323x231201639
Joel D. Vallett, Sanghee Park
This study examines whether and how policy entrepreneurs and their interactions with state legislatures influence the adoption and diffusion of a child abuse prevention policy, that is, Erin’s Law, across U.S. state legislatures. Employing 8 years of state-level data (2011–2018), we claim that a policy entrepreneur’s impact on policy adoption is conditional on the degree of legislative professionalism and the state’s political ideology. The event history analysis (EHA) and logistic regression (Logit) analyses reveal that policy entrepreneurs’ speaking engagements decrease the time to adoption and increase the likelihood of adoption, and the effect becomes stronger when states’ political ideology aligns with the political landscape surrounding the issue. However, our findings did not support the countervailing role of a policy entrepreneur in leveling gaps in the degree of legislative professionalism and ideological preferences across state legislatures.
{"title":"The Politics of Expertise in Policymaking: The Case of Erin’s Law Adoption and Diffusion Across the U.S. States","authors":"Joel D. Vallett, Sanghee Park","doi":"10.1177/0160323x231201639","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0160323x231201639","url":null,"abstract":"This study examines whether and how policy entrepreneurs and their interactions with state legislatures influence the adoption and diffusion of a child abuse prevention policy, that is, Erin’s Law, across U.S. state legislatures. Employing 8 years of state-level data (2011–2018), we claim that a policy entrepreneur’s impact on policy adoption is conditional on the degree of legislative professionalism and the state’s political ideology. The event history analysis (EHA) and logistic regression (Logit) analyses reveal that policy entrepreneurs’ speaking engagements decrease the time to adoption and increase the likelihood of adoption, and the effect becomes stronger when states’ political ideology aligns with the political landscape surrounding the issue. However, our findings did not support the countervailing role of a policy entrepreneur in leveling gaps in the degree of legislative professionalism and ideological preferences across state legislatures.","PeriodicalId":52260,"journal":{"name":"State and Local Government Review","volume":"44 3-4","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135512691","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-18DOI: 10.1177/0160323x231206397
Patrick Flavin, Gregory Shufeldt
State preemption of local policymaking is an increasingly used political tool and source of intergovernmental conflict. While previous studies have examined the determinants and effects of preemption, to date no study has examined citizens’ attitudes and opinions about the practice. Using two original public opinion surveys, we find that support for preemption does not seem to be politically driven as there are no discernable partisan differences and citizens are no more likely to support preemption when their party controls state government. Instead, support for preemption appears to be tied to more general feelings about state government such as trust and perceived responsiveness to citizens. Moreover, when using a survey experiment that primes respondents with a concrete example of preemption—forbidding cities from raising their minimum wage—support for preemption falls. These findings provide important context about citizens’ attitudes toward an increasingly prominent tool of state governments.
{"title":"What Does the Public Think About State Government Preemption of Local Policymaking?","authors":"Patrick Flavin, Gregory Shufeldt","doi":"10.1177/0160323x231206397","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0160323x231206397","url":null,"abstract":"State preemption of local policymaking is an increasingly used political tool and source of intergovernmental conflict. While previous studies have examined the determinants and effects of preemption, to date no study has examined citizens’ attitudes and opinions about the practice. Using two original public opinion surveys, we find that support for preemption does not seem to be politically driven as there are no discernable partisan differences and citizens are no more likely to support preemption when their party controls state government. Instead, support for preemption appears to be tied to more general feelings about state government such as trust and perceived responsiveness to citizens. Moreover, when using a survey experiment that primes respondents with a concrete example of preemption—forbidding cities from raising their minimum wage—support for preemption falls. These findings provide important context about citizens’ attitudes toward an increasingly prominent tool of state governments.","PeriodicalId":52260,"journal":{"name":"State and Local Government Review","volume":"12 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135888400","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-10DOI: 10.1177/0160323x231202421
Scot Schraufnagel
The study examines the relationship between voting restrictions and public health in the 50 American states. Using a recently developed Cost of Voting Index (COVI) as a surrogate for variance in state electoral climate the research tests for a statistical relationship while controlling for other considerations that notably influence community health outcomes. The research uses the America’s Health Rankings composite indicator of state health as the dependent variable and examines the relationship at seven points of time over a 25-year period (1996–2020). In both bivariate and multivariate tests, a robust relationship is uncovered between the COVI and overall state health. In the bivariate tests, it is possible to see changes in state COVI values, overtime, corresponding with movement in the state public health scores.
{"title":"Voting Restrictions and Public Health: An Analysis of State Variation 1996–2020","authors":"Scot Schraufnagel","doi":"10.1177/0160323x231202421","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0160323x231202421","url":null,"abstract":"The study examines the relationship between voting restrictions and public health in the 50 American states. Using a recently developed Cost of Voting Index (COVI) as a surrogate for variance in state electoral climate the research tests for a statistical relationship while controlling for other considerations that notably influence community health outcomes. The research uses the America’s Health Rankings composite indicator of state health as the dependent variable and examines the relationship at seven points of time over a 25-year period (1996–2020). In both bivariate and multivariate tests, a robust relationship is uncovered between the COVI and overall state health. In the bivariate tests, it is possible to see changes in state COVI values, overtime, corresponding with movement in the state public health scores.","PeriodicalId":52260,"journal":{"name":"State and Local Government Review","volume":"14 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136353509","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-09-21DOI: 10.1177/0160323x231200830
David J. Helpap
This research assesses the challenges facing rural local governments, impediments to addressing them, and the extent to which rural local governments would benefit from additional revenues, management capacity, or partnerships. Using survey data from rural local governments in Wisconsin, findings indicate longstanding problems related to revenue limitations, management capacity, and service delivery remain, but there are also significant concerns about high-speed internet access, affordable housing, and substance abuse. Impediments to addressing challenges include financial limitations, reduced state support, and declining community involvement. Obtaining additional revenues and partnerships with other, nearby local governments were viewed as the most helpful methods to address community challenges. Overall, the results update and expand on existing research on the challenges facing rural local communities, and further highlight the need for additional research on this specific subset of local governments.
{"title":"Assessing and Addressing the Challenges of Rural Local Governments","authors":"David J. Helpap","doi":"10.1177/0160323x231200830","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0160323x231200830","url":null,"abstract":"This research assesses the challenges facing rural local governments, impediments to addressing them, and the extent to which rural local governments would benefit from additional revenues, management capacity, or partnerships. Using survey data from rural local governments in Wisconsin, findings indicate longstanding problems related to revenue limitations, management capacity, and service delivery remain, but there are also significant concerns about high-speed internet access, affordable housing, and substance abuse. Impediments to addressing challenges include financial limitations, reduced state support, and declining community involvement. Obtaining additional revenues and partnerships with other, nearby local governments were viewed as the most helpful methods to address community challenges. Overall, the results update and expand on existing research on the challenges facing rural local communities, and further highlight the need for additional research on this specific subset of local governments.","PeriodicalId":52260,"journal":{"name":"State and Local Government Review","volume":"53 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136236824","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-09-21DOI: 10.1177/0160323x231197433
Eric van Holm, Xi Huang, Cathy Yang Liu
A wide range of sub-national immigration and immigrant-related policies have been adopted in the United States in the last two decades. Using data from the Urban Institute and IPUMS, the authors analyze the impact of state-level policy climates related to enforcement, integration, and public benefits on inter-state mobility for immigrants. The findings of the present analysis show that immigrants are responsive to changes in the state-level immigration policy climate. They are less likely to move out of states that are on balance more supportive of the foreign-born population and more likely to relocate from restrictive states. In addition, the policy impacts do not vary significantly by immigrants’ education, language fluency, or employment status, calling into question whether the policies miss their intended targets. These findings have implications for local governments and agencies in policy design and implementation as they continue to develop policies targeting the foreign-born population.
{"title":"Moving With the Tide: Immigrant Reactions to State-Level Policy Changes","authors":"Eric van Holm, Xi Huang, Cathy Yang Liu","doi":"10.1177/0160323x231197433","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0160323x231197433","url":null,"abstract":"A wide range of sub-national immigration and immigrant-related policies have been adopted in the United States in the last two decades. Using data from the Urban Institute and IPUMS, the authors analyze the impact of state-level policy climates related to enforcement, integration, and public benefits on inter-state mobility for immigrants. The findings of the present analysis show that immigrants are responsive to changes in the state-level immigration policy climate. They are less likely to move out of states that are on balance more supportive of the foreign-born population and more likely to relocate from restrictive states. In addition, the policy impacts do not vary significantly by immigrants’ education, language fluency, or employment status, calling into question whether the policies miss their intended targets. These findings have implications for local governments and agencies in policy design and implementation as they continue to develop policies targeting the foreign-born population.","PeriodicalId":52260,"journal":{"name":"State and Local Government Review","volume":"73 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136237267","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-09-01DOI: 10.1177/0160323x231197432
Timothy Lynch
This investigation explores the evolution of the relationship between national and local factors in Minnesota’s state legislative elections. Correlations demonstrate a growing connection between presidential and state legislative results between 1992 and 2020. Further, the findings reveal that national factors have exercised an outsized influence on State Senate election results in recent years, even when the strongest rival explanations are included in the analysis. In fact, when presidential vote and previous vote for a State Senate seat are assessed alongside incumbency and campaign spending in the 2020 election, presidential vote demonstrates the strongest influence on outcomes, while incumbency and candidate spending show negligible effects. The findings suggest that national factors thoroughly dominate state legislative elections. This has implications for policy responsiveness and raises the specter that the mismatch between a federal system and nationalized politics may prove unsustainable.
{"title":"Nationalization of State Legislative Elections: Evidence From the Minnesota State Senate","authors":"Timothy Lynch","doi":"10.1177/0160323x231197432","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0160323x231197432","url":null,"abstract":"This investigation explores the evolution of the relationship between national and local factors in Minnesota’s state legislative elections. Correlations demonstrate a growing connection between presidential and state legislative results between 1992 and 2020. Further, the findings reveal that national factors have exercised an outsized influence on State Senate election results in recent years, even when the strongest rival explanations are included in the analysis. In fact, when presidential vote and previous vote for a State Senate seat are assessed alongside incumbency and campaign spending in the 2020 election, presidential vote demonstrates the strongest influence on outcomes, while incumbency and candidate spending show negligible effects. The findings suggest that national factors thoroughly dominate state legislative elections. This has implications for policy responsiveness and raises the specter that the mismatch between a federal system and nationalized politics may prove unsustainable.","PeriodicalId":52260,"journal":{"name":"State and Local Government Review","volume":"3 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135298174","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-09-01DOI: 10.1177/0160323x231200219
Johnny Olszewski, Momen Abukhdier
Baltimore City’s CitiStat, a performance management program designed to increase productivity by requiring key indicators on a regular basis, quickly became a highly lauded model that was replicated by other governments around the world but that has had its own sustainability questioned. Based on lessons learned from the CitiStat experience, Baltimore County’s BCStat program has taken a “three pronged approach” to maximize program benefits and to address the sustainability challenges faced by CitiStat. Specificially, BCStat is focused on collaborative, cross-departmental priorities; the Stat team provides data and consulting support; and data literacy has become infused across all county departments, including programmatic assistance.
{"title":"BCStat: A Sustainable Approach to “CollaborationStat”","authors":"Johnny Olszewski, Momen Abukhdier","doi":"10.1177/0160323x231200219","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0160323x231200219","url":null,"abstract":"Baltimore City’s CitiStat, a performance management program designed to increase productivity by requiring key indicators on a regular basis, quickly became a highly lauded model that was replicated by other governments around the world but that has had its own sustainability questioned. Based on lessons learned from the CitiStat experience, Baltimore County’s BCStat program has taken a “three pronged approach” to maximize program benefits and to address the sustainability challenges faced by CitiStat. Specificially, BCStat is focused on collaborative, cross-departmental priorities; the Stat team provides data and consulting support; and data literacy has become infused across all county departments, including programmatic assistance.","PeriodicalId":52260,"journal":{"name":"State and Local Government Review","volume":"25 suppl_4 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135638475","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-06-29DOI: 10.1177/0160323x231181332
Xiaoheng Wang, Jen-Chi Cheng
Local governments’ ability to sustain a healthy fiscal structure and meet service obligations is critical in avoiding financial hardship. This study empirically tests the effects of intrastate fiscal decentralization on municipal fiscal health that is measured by cash solvency, budget solvency, and long-run solvency. The two key variables, revenue decentralization and expenditure decentralization, are constructed to represent intrastate fiscal decentralization. The panel dataset includes 100 large U.S. cities and covers fiscal years 2007 through 2016, which encompasses periods before, during, and after the Great Recession started in 2008. The model estimation is based on a two-way fixed-effect panel regression. The results show that an increased degree of state-local revenue decentralization is significantly associated with higher long-term solvency, while an increased degree of state-local expenditure decentralization leads to higher levels of cash solvency and lower levels of long-term solvency.
{"title":"The Effect of Fiscal Decentralization on Municipal Fiscal Condition: An Empirical Study of Large American Cities","authors":"Xiaoheng Wang, Jen-Chi Cheng","doi":"10.1177/0160323x231181332","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0160323x231181332","url":null,"abstract":"Local governments’ ability to sustain a healthy fiscal structure and meet service obligations is critical in avoiding financial hardship. This study empirically tests the effects of intrastate fiscal decentralization on municipal fiscal health that is measured by cash solvency, budget solvency, and long-run solvency. The two key variables, revenue decentralization and expenditure decentralization, are constructed to represent intrastate fiscal decentralization. The panel dataset includes 100 large U.S. cities and covers fiscal years 2007 through 2016, which encompasses periods before, during, and after the Great Recession started in 2008. The model estimation is based on a two-way fixed-effect panel regression. The results show that an increased degree of state-local revenue decentralization is significantly associated with higher long-term solvency, while an increased degree of state-local expenditure decentralization leads to higher levels of cash solvency and lower levels of long-term solvency.","PeriodicalId":52260,"journal":{"name":"State and Local Government Review","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42535928","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-05-22DOI: 10.1177/0160323x231173920
Zachary Spicer, J. Kushner, Jean-François Lamarche
In this paper, we examine whether a political budget cycle exists in municipal governments that fall under tight financial and institutional regulation by senior orders of government. For other levels of government, there is evidence that politicians initiate popular programs in election years and delay the unpopular tax increases after the election. Using a sample of 444 Ontario municipalities, with few exceptions, no such evidence was found. The results are the same regardless of the length of the term (three or four year), municipal size (small, medium, or large), and the governance system (one or two-tier). The paper concludes with possible explanations as to why there are no opportunistic manipulations of municipal budgets.
{"title":"Are Municipal Budget Cycles Political? Evidence From Ontario, Canada?","authors":"Zachary Spicer, J. Kushner, Jean-François Lamarche","doi":"10.1177/0160323x231173920","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0160323x231173920","url":null,"abstract":"In this paper, we examine whether a political budget cycle exists in municipal governments that fall under tight financial and institutional regulation by senior orders of government. For other levels of government, there is evidence that politicians initiate popular programs in election years and delay the unpopular tax increases after the election. Using a sample of 444 Ontario municipalities, with few exceptions, no such evidence was found. The results are the same regardless of the length of the term (three or four year), municipal size (small, medium, or large), and the governance system (one or two-tier). The paper concludes with possible explanations as to why there are no opportunistic manipulations of municipal budgets.","PeriodicalId":52260,"journal":{"name":"State and Local Government Review","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45186678","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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