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"Federal and state relations"
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Setting the Terms of Relief: Explaining State Policy Choices in the Devolution Revolution
The landmark welfare legislation of 1996 offers students of politics a unique opportunity to pinpoint the determinants of state-level policy choices-a case in which the fifty states responded virtually simultaneously to a single policy mandate. Taking advantage of this opportunity, we investigate the factors that led states to make restrictive policy choices after 1996 and use this analysis to evaluate general theories of welfare politics. Specifically, we test six types of explanations for why some states responded by adopting \"get-tough\" program rules: theories that identify welfare policy as a site of ideological conflict, as an outcome of electoral politics, as a domain of policy innovation, as an instrument of social control, as an outlet for racial resentments, and as an expression of moral values. The results of our ordered and binary logit models suggest that state policies have been shaped by a variety of social and political forces, but especially by the racial composition of families who rely on program benefits.
Journal Article
The Formation of National Party Systems
Pradeep Chhibber and Ken Kollman rely on historical data spanning back to the eighteenth century from Canada, Great Britain, India, and the United States to revise our understanding of why a country's party system consists of national or regional parties. They demonstrate that the party systems in these four countries have been shaped by the authority granted to different levels of government. Departing from the conventional focus on social divisions or electoral rules in determining whether a party system will consist of national or regional parties, they argue instead that national party systems emerge when economic and political power resides with the national government. Regional parties thrive when authority in a nation-state rests with provincial or state governments. The success of political parties therefore depends on which level of government voters credit for policy outcomes. National political parties win votes during periods when political and economic authority rests with the national government, and lose votes to regional and provincial parties when political or economic authority gravitates to lower levels of government.
This is the first book to establish a link between federalism and the formation of national or regional party systems in a comparative context. It places contemporary party politics in the four examined countries in historical and comparative perspectives, and provides a compelling account of long-term changes in these countries. For example, the authors discover a surprising level of voting for minor parties in the United States before the 1930s. This calls into question the widespread notion that the United States has always had a two-party system. In fact, only recently has the two-party system become predominant.
eBook
De facto federalism in China
This book is the first attempt to conceptualize China's central-local relations from the behavioral perspective. Although China does not have a federalist system of government, the author believes that, with deepening reform and openness, China's central-local relations is increasingly functioning on federalist principles.
eBook
Ambition, Federalism, and Legislative Politics in Brazil
Ambition theory suggests that scholars can understand a good deal about politics by exploring politicians' career goals. In the USA, an enormous literature explains congressional politics by assuming that politicians primarily desire to win re-election. In contrast, although Brazil's institutions appear to encourage incumbency, politicians do not seek to build a career within the legislature. Instead, political ambition focuses on the subnational level. Even while serving in the legislature, Brazilian legislators act strategically to further their future extra-legislative careers by serving as 'ambassadors' of subnational governments. Brazil's federal institutions also affect politicians' electoral prospects and career goals, heightening the importance of subnational interests in the lower chamber of the national legislature. Together, ambition and federalism help explain important dynamics of executive-legislative relations in Brazil. This book's rational-choice institutionalist perspective contributes to the literature on the importance of federalism and subnational politics to understanding national-level politics around the world.
eBook
Making the National Local: Specifying the Conditions for National Government Influence on State Policymaking
The national government can force or entice state governments to act on policy through a variety of actions, including providing monetary incentives and sanctions. We examine how and under what conditions actions of the national government influence the diffusion of policy across the states. We test our hypotheses on the cases of the diffusion of partial birth abortion laws, truth-in-sentencing laws, and hate crime laws using event history analysis on pooled cross-sectional data from the 50 states. Our results suggest that, in addition to fiscal incentives, the national government can influence state policymaking when it sends strong, clear signals to the states concerning its preferences and the potential for future action. But even national-level signals that are weak and ambiguous may influence state policymaking indirectly.
Journal Article
The Rehnquist Court and the Political Dynamics of Federalism
The Rehnquist Court's federalism decisions have sparked
contentious debate about the role of the Court in the American
political system. This article examines the reasons behind the
Court's revival of federalism and the controversy it has produced.
The first part reviews the normative jurisprudential debate over the
Court's role as it has been cast in the legal academy. In the
second part, we turn to an historical-empirical, or “political
regimes,” framework for understanding the role of the Supreme
Court. Although this framework provides a better explanation of the
Rehnquist Court's foray into federalism, the connections between
this approach and normative jurisprudential debates remain important,
and we explore them in the final section. The Court's recent
jurisprudence on federalism reflects both consensus and division within
the current political regime—consensus that federalism is an
important value, but division over how best to protect that value. We
argue that competing jurisprudential theories over the role of the
Court illustrate these political divisions. Thus, this article
highlights the special insights political scientists bring to the
subject, but also demonstrates how the two approaches can be usefully
combined to provide a more robust understanding of the Court's
role in the American political system.The
authors thank Richard Brisbin, John Dinan, Mark Graber, Ashley Grosse,
Jennifer Hochschild, Tom Keck, David O'Brien, Bob Turner, and the
anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions along the
way.
Journal Article
Rethinking Decentralization
Federal countries face innumerable challenges including public
health crises, economic uncertainty, and widespread public distrust
in governing institutions. They are also home to 40 per cent of the
world's population. Rethinking Decentralization explores
the question of what makes a successful federal government by
examining the unique role of public attitudes in maintaining the
fragile institutions of federalism. Conventional wisdom is that
successful federal governance is predicated on the degree to which
authority is devolved to lower levels of government and the extent
to which citizens display a \"federal spirit\" - a term often
referenced but rarely defined. Jacob Deem puts these claims to the
test, examining public attitudes in Australia, Belgium, Canada,
France, Germany, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United
States. Deem demonstrates how the role of citizen attachment to
particular manifestations of decentralization, subsidiarity, and
federalism is unique to each country and a reflection of its
history, institutions, and culture. Essential reading for
policymakers, academics, and everyday citizens, Rethinking
Decentralization re-centres the public to offer a nuanced way
of thinking about federal governance.
eBook
Party Aggregation and the Number of Parties in India and the United States
We rely on data from India and the United States to show that political and economic centralization can influence the number of national parties in single-member simple-plurality electoral systems. Historically, in both countries the number of parties in local electoral districts has been near two, but the number of national parties has fluctuated. Periods of a small number of national parties in both countries correspond to periods of centralization. We argue that, as national governments centralize power and make policies that affect local areas, candidates have greater incentives to associate with national organizations, and voters have greater incentives to abandon locally competitive but nationally noncompetitive parties.
Journal Article