IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/apsrev/v60y1966i01p73-82_12.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Relation between Public Policy and Some Structural and Environmental Variables in the American States

Author

Listed:
  • Hofferbert, Richard I.

Abstract

What is the relationship between certain major structural aspects of state governments and the content of policies adopted in the states? Do the socio-economic environments of the states relate significantly to political structures or the type of policies enacted?The thesis advanced here is that differences in policy, at least in certain substantive areas, are more readily explained in terms of differences in the socio-economic environments of the states than by an examination of structural variables. It will also be maintained that, as policy is independent of structure, so structure is also largely independent of some major aspects of the environment. The specific structural variables to be examined are apportionment, party competitiveness, and divided party control between governors and their legislatures.Six specific propositions will be examined:Proposition 1. The more imbalance in a state's apportionment, the less likely the legislature is to pass “liberal” or welfare-oriented policies beneficial to urban groups.Proposition 2. The more imbalance in a state's apportionment, the less financial aid large cities will receive directly from the state.Proposition 3. The more imbalance in a state's apportionment, the less competitive will be its major parties.3a. the less competitive a state's two major parties, the less welfare-oriented will be the policies adopted by its legislature.Proposition 4. The more imbalance in a state's apportionment, the more likely it is that control of the executive and legislative branches will be divided between parties.4a. The more frequently control of the legislature and executive are divided, the less likely a state will be to adopt welfare-oriented policies.Proposition 5. The more industrialized a state, the more imbalance there will be in its apportionment system.Proposition 6. The more industrialized a state, the higher will be its welfare-orientation.

Suggested Citation

  • Hofferbert, Richard I., 1966. "The Relation between Public Policy and Some Structural and Environmental Variables in the American States," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 60(1), pages 73-82, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:cup:apsrev:v:60:y:1966:i:01:p:73-82_12
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0003055400126735/type/journal_article
    File Function: link to article abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Thomas R. Dye, 1990. "The Policy Consequences of Intergovernmental Competition," Cato Journal, Cato Journal, Cato Institute, vol. 10(1), pages 59-37, Spring/Su.
    2. Arvy Smith & Jason L. Jensen, 2017. "An Assessment of Factors Important to Legislators in Budget Decisions; How Much Impact Can Agencies Have?," Public Budgeting & Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(3), pages 112-133, September.
    3. DaeJin Kim & Sang Seok Bae & Robert J. Eger III, 2009. "Is Local Discretionary Sales Tax Adopted to Counteract Fiscal Stress?," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 23(2), pages 150-166, May.
    4. Werner W. Pommerehne, 1974. "Determinanten öffentlicher Ausgaben - Ein einfaches politisch-ökonomisches Modell," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics (SJES), Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics (SSES), vol. 110(III), pages 455-491, September.
    5. Bruce D. Macnaughton & Conrad J. Winn, 1981. "Economic Policy and Electoral Self Interest: The Allocations of the Department of Regional Economic Expansion," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 7(2), pages 318-327, Spring.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cup:apsrev:v:60:y:1966:i:01:p:73-82_12. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kirk Stebbing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cambridge.org/psr .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.