Description
Abstract and Keywords
The chapter provides an overview of this project and the contents of the following chapters on state and local politics and policy. A brief history of the subfield and recent innovations are discussed along with the advantages of studying state and local politics and policy from a comparative perspective. Keywords: politics, policy, history of subfield, innovations, comparative
THE Oxford Handbook of State and Local Government is part of the eight-volume Oxford Handbook of American Politics. The chapters critically assess both the major contributions to the state and local politics literature and the ways in which the subfield has developed. Each of the chapters represents the author’s point of view and outlines an agenda for future research. This means that the authors have chosen to focus on some elements of the literature over others.
This volume can be viewed as a historic undertaking. It contains a wide range of essays that define the important questions in the field, critically evaluates where we are in answering them, and sets the direction and terms of discourse for future work. I believe that the volume will have a substantial influence in defining the field for years to come.
The chapters are organized thematically and cover the main areas of study in subnational politics by exploring the central contributions to the comparative study of institutions, behavior, and policy in the American context. Each chapter also highlights the gaps in what we know and outlines an agenda for future research.
Despite the fact that the study of state and local politics had long been considered a backwater field of political science, scholars have rediscovered the rich dynamics and theoretical utility of focusing on state and local politics since the mid-1990s. Indeed many would suggest that the field has undergone an incredible rebirth in the past two decades.
Of course many questions remain unanswered and in some areas we have barely scratched the surface. But in many areas we have learned a great deal and in the process contributed theoretically and empirically to the general study of politics. My goal in this volume, and the goal of the contributing authors, has been to highlight what we have learned and where we think the most fruitful research agendas still lie. Those of us who study state and local politics come at the subject from a variety of perspectives. There are those of us who are intense followers of local political conditions, those who are focused on state and local politics as comparative units of analysis, (p. 4) and those who only occasionally dip into the pool of state and local politics because they see the utility for testing broader theories of politics and/or policy. As you will read in these pages, we accept all comers and value the input and contributions. We also invite and encourage those who have yet to see the value of testing their theories of interest in the context of state and local politics to see the value of comparing across governments and policies that are similar but different enough to develop parsimonious models for testing frameworks and theories.