Causes and Consequences of Policy Decisions in the U.S. States

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

State policy is of increasing interest to scholars of American politics. Yet, large gaps in our understanding of both the causes and consequences of state policy decisions remain. The papers in this panel make important contributions to our understanding of the role of state policy in the U.S. federal system.

One of the difficulties in studying state policy is measurement. The papers on this panel contribute novel data collection and measurement. For instance, drawing on research in comparative politics, Grumbach develops measures of democratic performance in the U.S. states based on policies relating to voting rights, gerrymandering, and others.. Michener likewise develops novel panel measures of civil legal resources, an important and understudied policy area.

The papers also make contributions to our understanding of the causes of state policy decisions. Bucci examines patterns of economic redistribution at the state level over a long period of time, finding that the strength of labor unions plays a critical role. In her analysis of civil legal resources, Michener also highlights the role of interest groups, in addition to factors like racial composition of the poor and political participation among marginalized groups. Finally, Grumbach emphasizes the powerful role of partisan control of state government in driving policies like voting rights related to democratic performance.

Third, these papers advance our understanding of the consequences of state policy decisions. Bucci, for instance, examines direct outcomes like economic inequality, persons living in precarity, and standards of living. Meckling and Trachtman, rather than studying direct outcomes of state policies, examine how state-level decisions condition national-level political debates. They find that electric utilities based in states with stricter environmental rules were less likely to oppose national-level climate policies, since these utilities had previously developed greener resource portfolios, and thus had less to lose from national-level climate action.

Altogether, the papers on the panel highlight the powerful implications of a federal system of government that allows for significant policy variation across the states. State policy has direct implications for the lives of Americans (Bucci, Michener), as well as for the broader political system (Grumbach, Meckling and Trachtman). The papers make contributions to our understanding of what causes policy variation across the states – and also explore a broad range of implications of this policy variation.

Sub Unit

• Related Groups / Center for the Study of Federalism

Cosponsor

• Division 28: Federalism and Intergovernmental Relations

Individual Presentations

• The Political Economy of Civil Legal Inequality - Jamila D. Michener, Cornell University

• Laboratories of Democratic Backsliding - Jake M Grumbach, Princeton University

• Federalism, Deunionization, and Economic Stability - Laura C. Bucci, Saint Joseph's University

• Mobilizing Up: How State Policy Shapes National Lobbying (in Climate Politics) - Sam Trachtman, University of California, Berkeley; Jonas Meckling, University of California, Berkeley

Chair

• Sarah F. Anzia University of California-Berkeley

Discussants

• Alexander Warren Hertel-Fernandez Columbia University

• Craig Volden University of Virginia