Collaborative Research on Local Government and the Legislative Link 1881-1996

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This project develops a model connecting local and state arenas. The fact that state governments can define local political institutions and can make extensive policy decisions about local places, has led scholars to imagine that the relationship between state and local governance is one-sided. This project develops and tests a dynamic model of state-local relations that predicts a two-sided relationship. It notes when local political actors bring issues to the state arena and how state legislative actors respond to local issues. The project assembles considerable information from state legislative and local government actions from 1881 to 1996. A sample of 12 states is drawn for data collection and analysis. In addition, 6 cities are selected, as part of a matched-pair design, and are analyzed as case studies. This project offers new insights into the nature of federalism as it unfolds under state and local interactions.