Governors, Legislatures, and Budgets: Diversity Across the American States

(Hardback)

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A study of the variations in the gubernatorial and legislative influence on state spending across the United States of America in which the authors offer case studies from all areas of the country. They demonstrate a wide diversity in executive-legislative interaction in budgeting practice. There are chapters on those states under gubernatorial domination and the variety of states in which the legislature retains the ability effectively to challenge the executive.

Reviews

In the midst of ceaseless budget battles in Washington, it is easy to forget just how important budgeting is in the American states. It is also easy to forget the critical role that states have long played in reforming the budgetary process. Through the vignettes of budgeting in 13 different American states, this volume presents a lively and valuable picture of contemporary state budgeting. Editors Clynch and Lauth have meticulously structured the questions that each of their authors seek to answer for each state, so the essays complement each other nicely and lead to some tentative but useful conclusions. The book's careful design demonstrates just how different state budgeting is: in some states the governors play the dominant role, in others the legislatures prevail, while in others power is mixed. The distribution of power ebbs and flows over time and is affected by the state's fiscal condition. With the states playing an increasingly important role in the US economic condition and policy performance, this study of how they budget is a welcome addition, for there is nothing else like it available. Recommended for university libraries.-Choice
"In the midst of ceaseless budget battles in Washington, it is easy to forget just how important budgeting is in the American states. It is also easy to forget the critical role that states have long played in reforming the budgetary process. Through the vignettes of budgeting in 13 different American states, this volume presents a lively and valuable picture of contemporary state budgeting. Editors Clynch and Lauth have meticulously structured the questions that each of their authors seek to answer for each state, so the essays complement each other nicely and lead to some tentative but useful conclusions. The book's careful design demonstrates just how different state budgeting is: in some states the governors play the dominant role, in others the legislatures prevail, while in others power is mixed. The distribution of power ebbs and flows over time and is affected by the state's fiscal condition. With the states playing an increasingly important role in the US economic condition and policy performance, this study of how they budget is a welcome addition, for there is nothing else like it available. Recommended for university libraries."-Choice

Author Bio

EDWARD J. CLYNCH is Professor and Head of the Department of Political Science at Mississippi State University. He is the author of many articles that have appeared in the International Journal of Public Administration, Public Administration Quarterly, State and Local Government Review, and Southeastern Political Review. THOMAS P. LAUTH is Professor and Head of the Department of Political Science at the University of Georgia, Athens. He is also co-author of Compromised Compliance: Implementation of the 1965 Voting Rights Act (Greenwood Press, 1982), and The Politics of State and City Administration. He has also written articles which have appeared in Public Budgeting and Finance, the International Journal of Public Administration, and Legislative Studies Quarterly.