Governance and the changing American states

by David Hedge

America has rediscovered its states and their governments. After decades of dominance by the federal government, the balance of power is shifting, often dramatically, to state governments. Here, David Hedge provides a comprehensive and up-to-date review of how the states have evolved over the past several decades on both the demand side (citizen participation, elections, parties, interest groups) and the supply side (governors, legislatures, the courts) of state government. In addition to describing the kinds of changes that are occurring at the state level, Hedge looks at the implications of those developments for the quality of statehouse democracy and the ability of the states to govern effectively. The major theme of the text is that state governments in the 1990s are better able to govern than ever before but suffer the same kinds of problems - inordinate interest group influence, partisanship, political stalemate - that we have seen at the national level.