Culture, constituency, and economic decline: Explaining state development policy choices

This dissertation examines variations in state economic development policies in order to explain how economic and political factors combine to cause such differences. The introductory chapter examines prior research on state economic development (the dependent variable), and on comparative state politics. Chapter two discusses the methods used to measure both the dependent and independent variables, and outlines the methods of analysis for the study.The third chapter analyzes the differences among the states on two basic measures of state development policy: the willingness to offer business incentives, and the likelihood of formulating citizen-oriented policies. A four-fold classification of the states based on these two factors is also developed.The following chapter (four) uses multivariate techniques, including regression analysis and discriminant analysis, to explain the policy differences set out in chapter three. In chapter five, we examine policy adoption over time in order to clarify and refine the explanation of state differences suggested in chapter four. This leads to an initial model of state development policy, which incorporates economic context, political culture, legislative development, and the imitation of and competition with other states as explanations.The sixth chapter is a case study of economic development policy in Illinois, allowing us to both gauge the accuracy of and further refine the basic model. The results of the case study largely confirm the initial findings, while adding contextual information that illuminates state decision-making processes. Chapter seven examines the impact of regional organizations on policy choices. In general, we find that internal political considerations inhibit cooperation, although there are exceptions.The final chapter assesses the study's results in a theoretical light. The findings are largely consistent with recent models of the policy formulation process. The results do, however, cast some doubt on the ability of the American federal system to resolve some policy questions.U of I OnlyETDs are only available to UIUC Users without author permissio