State and Local Government: Essentials Book

Contents

Note: Each chapter includes a Chapter Recap, Key Terms, and Surfing the Web.

• 1. New Directions for State and Local Government
  Studying State and Local Government in the Twenty-First Century
  State and Local Government Capacity
  The People: Designers and Consumers of Government
  Linking Capacity to Results

  2. Federalism and the States

  The Concept of Federalism

  The History of U.S. Federalism

  Intergovernmental Relations

  Models of Federalism

  Federal Purse Strings

  The Future of Federalism

  3. State Constitutions

  The Evolution of State Constitutions

  Weaknesses of Constitutions

  Constitutional Reform

  Methods For Constitutional Change

  State Responsiveness and Constitutional Reform

  4. Citizen Participation and Elections

  Participation

  Elections

  Direct Democracy

  Citizen Access to Government

  Volunteerism as Participation

  The Effects of Citizen Participation

  5. Political Parties, Interest Groups, and Campaigns

  Political Parties

  Interest Groups

  Political Campaigns

  6. State Legislatures

  The Essence of Legislatures

  Legislative Dynamics

  Legislative Behavior

  How a Bill Becomes Law (Or Not)

  Legislative Reform and Capacity

  Relationship with the Executive Branch

  Legislatures and Capacity

  7. Governors

  The Office of Governor

  The Roles of the Governor: Duties and Responsibilities

  Formal Powers of the Governor

  Informal Powers

  Removal from Office

  Other Executive Branch Officials

  The Capability of U.S. Governors

  8. Public Administration: Budgeting and Service Delivery

  Public Employees in State andLocal Governments: Who They Are, What They Do

  Budgeting in State and Local Government

  Human Resource Policy in State and Local Government: From Patronage to Merit

  The Politics of Bureaucracy

  Reinventing Government

  The Quality of Public Administration

  9. The Judiciary

  The Structure of State Court Systems

  How Judges Are Selected

  Judicial Decisionmaking

  New Judicial Federalism

  Administrative and Organizational Improvements

  Crime and Criminal Justice

  10. State-Local Relations

  The Distribution of Authority

  State-Local Organizations

  Metropolitics: A New Challenge for State Government

  States and Their Rural Communities

  The Interaction of States and Localities

  11. Local Government: Structure and Leadership

  Five Types of Local Governments

  Leadership in Local Government

  Communities and Governance

  12. Taxing and Spending

  The Principles of Finance

  Revenues

  The Political Economy of Taxation

  Borrowing and Debt

  Where All the Money Goes: State and Local Spending

  State and Local Finance in the 2000s