State And Local Government

Politics and Public Policy are the focus of course survey by civic engagement and personal encounters.

PO 105 Textbook
State and Local Government

David C. Saffell, OHIO NORTHERN UNIVERSITY
Harry Basehart, SALISBURY UNIVERSITY
0073526320/ 9780073526324 / ©2009

The Setting of State and Local Government by: Meghan Clothier and Sally Jones

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Currently there are many factors affecting policy making in state and local government. Social issues, economic considerations, geographical factors, political culture, and population shifts all shape how our nation is governed. Vast difference within and among states has made strategic, flexible policy making a necessity.
Illegal immigration has had a huge impact in many states. There are an estimated 850,000 illegal immigrants arriving each year that make up 30% of our foreign born population with 60% coming from Mexico and another 23% coming from other Latin American countries. The federal government has failed to pass immigration legislation due to squabbles over amnesty and worries about breaking up immigrant families. With the federal government focusing on foreign interests and a crumbling economy, this has left the burden with the states. As a result the states are not consistent in handling these immigration issues, therefore causing confusion from border to border. Many states now provide healthcare, education, documents and postings in Spanish, and jobs while other states severely limit rights by denying access to social services, licenses, and employment. Dealing with these issues has only just begun, because many of the policies will eventually be overturned in court due to the vast differences in how states have handled this issue.

Economic considerations all hinge on the priorities of the individual states. The urbanized, wealthy states have more options in how to spend their money. With more wealth these states are not only able to provide needed services, but are also able to improve the standard of living for their residents. On the other hand, the poorer states are obligated to forego amenities in order to just maintain basic needs.

Geographical factors significantly affect state policy. The physically larger states such as Montana, have more expense in maintaining their infrastructures. States that are rich with natural resources such as Alaska receive revenue from these resources which steers policy away from taxation. In states such as Arizona and California, water shortages have a dramatic impact on state policy, forcing a compromise between these two states. Because of varied geographical landscapes and resources all states have to negotiate among themselves for resources inaccessible to them.
There are three political cultures among the states which vary according to cultural roots. In the individualist political culture, there is little participation in government because the people tend to be suspicious of government. Thus the people have little input into the making of policy. In the moralistic culture citizens are active in policy making because it is viewed as the individual’s duty and therefore the policies tend to promote the welfare of the people. Finally, in the traditionalistic culture more corruption exists due to governance by the elite, for the elite. Policy making is focused on private interests versus public interest.

People of the United States have become very mobile. Movement from rural to urban, urban to suburban and north to south and west have created changing policy. In areas with aging populations, states are having to provide nursing homes and other services that cater to this population. This can be cost-prohibitive due to lack of federal funding. Senior citizens are not receptive to tax increases due to fixed incomes, making it more difficult to raise revenues for these projects.
However, there are other areas that are struggling to keep up with the demands of an exploding younger generation calling for more schools, employment opportunities, and housing.

Each state has its own set of unique priorities, characteristics, backgrounds, and cultures that influence policy. The impact of these factors varies from state to state, but despite their differences each state is able to coexist and come together as one nation.

haysvillelibrary.wordpress.com/2009/04/07/
Basehart, Harry & Saffell, David C. State and Local Government: Politics and Public Policies, 9th edition. New York, New York. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 2009. Print.

Intergovernmental Relations/Federalism
By: Brandi Burgess and Brandon Standage

When our nation was first created the United States was a collection of separate governments. These sovereigns came together to fight off enemies and coexist economically, but still maintain their independence as a separate government. During the Great Depression, there was a shift in power. Legislation was passed weakening the states power, and thus, giving the federal government more authority. Currently, our local governments are trying to regain the power that was lost. In order to do that, one must have a complete understanding of federalism.
Federalism is a political concept where a group of several members are bound together with a person to govern, or set to be the representing head. This is also a system in which the right to govern is shared between the federal and state governments. Federalism in summary also meaning, the distributing of powers between central and constituent units. Recently a more active method of intergovernmental relations has been put in use. This approach focused more on politics as opposed to the legal principles of federalism. They share joint action yet have separate action. For example, our system of checks and balances requires that each government. The state needs the federal government, just like the federal government needs the state government, however to keep in balance they must act alone sometimes. Federalism is most often regarded as a state of mind, for example, although the national government may have the legal authority to take a wide range of actions, it’s constrained by political and social force of the state autonomy and local government. A disadvantage of federalism is that a number of severe charges can be made. One of the many disadvantages is that some states have more money than others; therefore there is an imbalanced distribution of the assets between the states.
In the United States of America, the national and state governments share their power and can act with authority over the same people and territory. The cities and states in the United States have a unitary relationship. In other wards this means the states have much higher control over cities then what the federal government has over the states. An example of this would be how the states can control the taxation and money spending of the cities. Most recently and over time the federal and state government has show that their powers have started to make an overlapping appearance. In some instances some refer to the states as having the official privilege of being the most important part of the tangled web of governments. This is said because states mediate the differences as well as disagreements among local governments and national or federal governments. The states help aide in the function of their local government’s private business and national government’s foreign trade. Come to find out we have obligatory reasoning to divide up the responsibilities amongst the state and federal governments. For starters, we need interstate solutions; standardized national standards are required; three the requests of national standards would lead to destructive competition among states. Lastly rearrangement across states lines is required to solve problems.
Through studying federalism and intergovernmental relations, with everything the state and local governments have gone through it’s become more noticeable that they are more flexible. The states have come to show use that they are more able and capable of sharing their money with the local governments when times are hard and when there is suffering. For example, the Greensburg tornado or hurricane Katrina. When the governments tend to show us this trusting side, should we go with it and trust them, or shall we elevate up our cautious sides and go against. That’s for us to find out in the future.

Sources:
http://www.cyberlearning-world.com/lessons/civics/federalism/lp.federalism_division_of_power.htm
Basehart, Harry & Saffell, David C. State and Local Government: Politics and Public Policies, 9th edition. New York, New York. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 2009. Print.

Political Parties and Interest Groups
Stephanie Albers & Tyson Miller

Democratic societies depend on political parties and interest groups to help bring in people to their specific government. States regulate the political parties, but the Supreme Court has determined some of the regulations unconstitutional. “An urban political machine was a cohesive and unified party organization led by a strong leader usually called the boss.” The machine obtained the voter’s loyalty with the use of patronage. The machine’s best source of power was to direct public payroll and hire for jobs in private business.

Today, state party organizations are an important role in political parties. Citizens that participate in a political party, are often referred to as professionals or amateurs. “Amateurs are more reform-minded, more interested in advocating certain issue positions and supporting candidates who take the same positions. They get involved with politics to expand their desire of specific political causes. “Professionals are more interested in winning elections and are therefore more willing to compromise issue positions if that is what it takes to win. They are less concerned about their parties’ candidates taking clear positions on the issues.”

There are different types of primaries and Political Scientists have thought of schemes to classify these primaries. Twenty eight states use the closed primary. With a closed primary, the voters pick their party choice a head of time and vote specifically in that party’s primary. Most states vary on how early voters can vote in advance.

The second primary that is used in twenty one states is the open primary. With the open primary, voters don’t have the choice to vote in advance, and they can choose the Republican or the Democratic ballot.

A blanket primary gives voters, that are registered, the opportunity in choosing candidates. “This allows voters to decide office by office which party’s primary they will vote in.”

Interest groups are similar to political parties in various ways. They are both significant links between citizens and their government. For instance, both look to help who is nominated and elected to the public office. The difference between political parties and interest groups revolves around a specific policy versus winning the elections. “Jeffrey M. Berry puts it this way: Interest groups are policy maximizers; they offer citizens ‘a direct, focused, and undiluted way of supporting advocacy on the issue they are most about.’ Political Parties, are vote maximizers; their primary concern is to win elections so that their candidates can control important position in state and local governments. “

Interest groups go to executive and judicial branches to obtain their goals, but they mainly focus on state legislatures, where they work to pass or defeat bills. Before retrieving individual tactics, it is noted that in many cases the most successful interest groups are the ones that encounter a defensive strategy: They wish to get the status quo against the people that wish to change things. Most legislators live by the quote of “ If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” For convenience, interest group tactics can be split into three categories: public relations campaigns, electioneering, and lobbying.

Interest groups control things the same way that large cities as in state legislatures. The main difference is that the same groups don’t have the same activeness in the state capitols and city halls. Downtown merchants and real estate groups are more active at the city level rather than at the state level.
Major urban interest groups my be classified as folllows:
1. Business and economic interest
2. Neighborhood interests
3.Good-government interests

The willingness to take action and their resources ( leadership and money) gives interest groups strength. Issues such has taxes, parking, zoning restrictions, and building and housing regulations are something for business’ to worry about.

Sources:
Basehart, Harry & Saffell, David C. State and Local Government: Politics and Public Policies, 9th edition. New York, New York. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 2009. Print.
http://wps.prenhall.com/hss_burns_govbrief_5/0,7874,770274-,00.html

Political Participation and Elections
Ashley Primm and Josh Korte

Political participation is actions through which ordinary members of a political system influence or attempt to influence outcomes such as; voting in elections, contributing money o candidates or interest groups, signing petitions, protesting, and writing letters to government officials.
Civic engagement- participation aimed at achieving a public good, usually through direct hands-on work in cooperation with others. Ex: Working together to solve a community problem, volunteering
Voting- one of the most important acts of political participation, it is the most common act of citizenship in any democracy.
Citizens must register by filling out a voter registration application form, which puts their name on a list of eligible voters and their assignment to a polling place.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was created to help allow African Americans voting rights. In the southern states they made literacy test a requirement for voter registration but after the federal action and U.S. Congress quickly came up with the act suspending the literacy test.
National Voter Registration Act- required all states to adopt mail-in agency-based registration procedures. This act helped increase voter registration rates
States and the federal government have taken steps to improve voting systems and election administration after the serious problems in the presidential election in Florida in 2000.
Running for Governor- Governors are eligible for reelection and most of them will be reelected. How the candidates define the issues for the voters is an important factor in determining who is elected.
Running for state legislature- in most states races are informal and involve face-to-face contact between candidates and voters. States that have a large population usually have professionally managed campaigns.
Running for mayor- In most bigger cities campaigning techniques of professional consultants, polling, and television advertisements are used. In smaller cities direct mail techniques are usually used.

Social Welfare by: Jared Hall
What is social welfare? Social welfare refers to government policies “that directly affect the income, services, and opportunities available to people who are aged, poor, disabled, ill, or otherwise vulnerable.” Historically, local governments provided services provided to the poor, but the federal government moved in strongly beginning in 1935. During the 1980’s, state governments played greater roles, which in 1996 developed into a social welfare reform bill signed by President Clinton.
There were several major policies involved in the reform bill. First they had to define some of the social services that would be provided. Some of these consisted of day care, job training, mental health care, and vocational rehabilitation. Another policy is social insurance, which is designed to prevent poverty and is financed by contributions by employees and employers. This is also known as unemployment compensation, or unemployment insurance; and this basically provides some income to those who are temporarily unemployed for some reason. IN 2005, the weekly average number of insured unemployed persons was 2.7 million, receiving an average weekly benefit payment of $267 for an average of fifteen weeks: benefits totaled $31.2 billion. Yet another major policy is public assistance. These programs pay benefits out of general-revenue funds to people who meet a legal definition of being poor. When it comes time for an election, these are the issues that most voters think of then they hear the term “welfare.” Examples of these policies are food stamps, Medicaid, and most widely known (but now defunct) , aid to families with dependant children (AFDC). President Lyndon Johnson approved the food stamps act in 1964. Food stamps are designed to improve nutrition in low-income families. These are stamps, which can be redeemed at grocery stores for food. The federal government pays for the entire cost of the coupons and shares the cost of administering the Food Stamps program with the states. The average monthly number of participating in the Food Stamps Program in 2005 was 23.9 million, and food stamp expenditures were $24.6 billion. Another policy used is Medicaid. Started in 1965, this provides health care services for persons who have low incomes and limited resources. Children and their mothers, the disabled, and the elderly are the main beneficiaries of Medicaid. Federal and state governments share its cost, which in 2003 totaled $233.2 billion. In terms of social welfare policies, Medicaid is the most expensive program in the United States, and it’s cost has been increasing rapidly, posing a difficult problem for states at a time of stable or declining revenues. Even though a new federal law overhauling welfare eliminated the Aid to Families with Dependant Children (AFDC) program, it needs to be described briefly because it served a major role in the reform debate in the 1990s. Originating from the social security act of 1935, the AFDC provided cash assistance to poor families with only one parent so that children could be continues to be cared for in their own homes. IN it’s next to last year of operation, 1996, the average monthly number of families on AFDC was about 4.2 million, and the average monthly payment per family was $383.
Welfare in many ways is starting to end as we know it. One of the main reasons for that it that welfare is a problem in itself. It can neither increase income enough to end poverty nor encourage its recipients to stand up and leave it on their own. And the first step in eliminating welfare was the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996; eliminating AFDC and with it the sixty-year-old guarantee of welfare checks to low-income mothers. After eliminating the AFDC, the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) was started. The TANF is a block grant of $2.3 billion annually. As with all block grants, the states were given more discretion in program design and implementation. For example, they could decide the following: what families to help and benefits they will receive, whether to adopt financial rewards and/or penalties to encourage recipients to work, and whether to allow the provision of services through contracts with charitable religious or private organizations. Now the impact of a decade of reform has been quite significant. Between 1996 and 2002, the number of families receiving cash benefits dropped from 4.6 million under AFDC to 2.1 million under TANF. TANF recipients could raise their household income by working part time and still receiving TANF.

http://www.welfareinfo.org/
http://www.publicwelfare.org/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCklHlmwcqU