Governors, grants, and elections : fiscal federalism in the American states / Sean Nicholson-Crotty.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Nicholson-Crotty, Sean, author.

Series:

Johns Hopkins studies in American public policy and management

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Federal government--United States.

Federal government.

United States.

Intergovernmental fiscal relations--United States.

Intergovernmental fiscal relations.

Grants-in-aid--United States.

Grants-in-aid.

Physical Description:

xii, 185 pages ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, 2015.

Summary:

How partisan politics influence grant-related decisions at the state level. -- Each year, states receive hundreds of billions of dollars in grants-in-aid from the federal government. Gubernatorial success is often contingent upon the pursuit and allocation of these grants. In Governors, Grants, and Elections, Sean Nicholson-Crotty reveals the truth about how U.S. governors strategically utilize these funds. Far from spending federal money in apolitical ways, they usually pursue their own policy interests in the hopes of maximizing their or their party's electoral success. Nicholson-Crotty analyzes three decades of data on the receipt and expenditure of grants in all fifty states. He also draws compelling evidence from governors' public speeches and interviews with state officials. Ultimately, he demonstrates that incumbent governors' use of grants to deliver policies desired by core constituents--along with their opportunistic funding of public and private goods that appeal to noncore median voters--enables them to increase approval, legislative success, and, ultimately, vote share for themselves or their parties. The inaugural book in the Johns Hopkins Studies in American Public Policy and Management series, Governors, Grants, and Elections is a significant and accessible work of public policy scholarship that sits at the nexus of multiple fields within political science.

Contents:

1 Introduction 1

2 A Political Theory of Fiscal Federalism in the States 19

3 The Strategic Pursuit of Federal Grants 48

4 The Strategic Expenditure of Federal Grants 79

5 Grants and the Electoral Connection 111

6 Conclusion 132.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781421417707

1421417707

OCLC:

907657496