John Dinan
Biographic Data
| ID | 3962760 |
|---|---|
| NAME | John Dinan |
| GIVEN NAMES | John |
| FAMILY NAME | Dinan |
| SIGNATURE | DINAN J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Wake Forest University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1299-1417 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 38 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 144 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 38 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1997 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
The Roots of Direct Democracy in the United States: South Dakota’s 1898 Referendum Creating the First Statewide Initiative Process
We investigate voter preferences for changes in voting rules, focusing specifically on the creation of citizen-initiative processes that were originally adopted in South Dakota in 1898 and eventually enacted by half of the states. Various claims have been advanced about why the process was adopted and who supported or opposed it, but without presenting evidence from referenda where voters approved the creation of the process. We test these claims…
Explaining the Prevalence of State Constitutional Conventions in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
Although state constitutional conventions in the United States were once called frequently and brought about significant changes in governance, recent decades have seen little convention activity. I examine the contrast between the earlier regularity of conventions and their recent absence, but from a different perspective than is usually taken—not by explaining the recent absence but rather explaining the regularity from the 1770s through 1970s.…
Don’t You be My Neighbor: Support for Racial-Exclusion Constitutional Provisions in Mid-19th Century Indiana and Illinois
Racially discriminatory provisions in the U.S. Constitution and southern state constitutions have been extensively analyzed, but insufficient attention has been brought to these provisions when included in northern state constitutions. We examine constitutional provisions excluding blacks from entering the state that were adopted by various northern states in the mid-19th Century. Previous scholarship has focused on the statements and votes of th…
The Institutionalization of State Resistance to Federal Directives in the 21st Century
State officials have challenged a number of federal policies during the Trump administration. In this article, I chronicle and categorize the tools that states have employed in resisting federal policies and show that states have relied primarily on three tactics: filing lawsuits, declining participation in federal programs, and passing policies inconsistent with federal policies. I also explain why state resistance has become such a prominent fe…
Stability and Contingency in Federalism Preferences
This article analyzes Americans’ preferences for making policy at the national versus the subnational level. Relying on a Pew Research Center survey question posed in multiple recent years, we investigate the extent to which partisanship and ideology are related to support for decentralization. As expected, Republicans and conservatives are more supportive of decentralization, whereas Democrats and liberals are less supportive. However, Republica…
Support for Progressive Reforms: Evidence from California's 1911 Referenda
An analysis of county-level election results in a 1911 California special election in which voters considered multiple state constitutional amendments-women's suffrage, direct democracy, home rule, worker safety, and business regulation-finds that certain socially active Protestant denominations endorsed most of these reforms. Otherwise, support for these measures showed little group uniformity. Urban counties favored several reforms but opposed …
Voting on Prohibition: Disentangling Preferences on Alcohol and Decentralization
We contribute to an understanding of the determinants of voter support for US prohibition policies in the early 1900s, by separating substantive preferences for wet versus dry policies from preferences for centralized versus decentralized control. Prior studies of prohibition referenda have generated various conclusions about which groups supported and opposed prohibition, whether regarding the role of religion, urban/rural residence, immigrant s…
State Constitutional Politics: Governing by Amendment in the American States
Scholars have increasingly been drawn in recent years to the study of state courts and constitutions, partly on account of state court decisions providing more protection for rights than is afforded by U.S. Supreme Court decisions but also because of state constitutional amendments enacted in response to these rulings.From the 1970s onward, state courts have relied on state constitutional provisions to restructure school-finance systems, ban capi…
Chapter 7. Policy-Enacting Amendments
This chapter, the second of three chapters analyzing policy-related state constitutional amendments, examines amendments that authorize passage of public policies. The chapter chronicles the range of policy-authorizing amendments and explains why these kinds of amendments have been so prevalent, especially from the late-nineteenth century onward. Amendments have authorized passage of labor laws regulating the hours, wages, and conditions of worke…
Chapter 2. Institutional-Authority Amendments
This chapter discusses the processes for amending state constitutions, the origin and evolution of these processes, and the varying use of these processes across the 50 states. All states provide for legislature-generated amendments, whereby legislators can propose amendments, which in all but one case have to be ratified by voters. Every state also allows for constitutional conventions to be called to propose amendments or wholesale revision of …
Chapter 4. Court-Responsive Amendments
This chapter, one of two chapters (along with Chapter 4) analyzing rights-related state constitutional amendments, examines amendments that have provided more protection for rights than is guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. These include amendments protecting privacy rights, equal rights amendments that prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender, amendments that provide more protection for the right to keep and bear arms than is guaranteed …
Chapter 6. Policy-Authorizing Amendments
This chapter, one of three chapters (along with chapters 6 and 7) analyzing policy-related state constitutional amendments, examines amendments that constrain the policy choices of public officials. The chapter identifies various kinds of policy-constraining amendments and the reasons they have been adopted. As the chapter shows, groups and officials have been led to enact policy-constraining amendments because they have viewed public officials a…
Chapter 1. State Constitutional Amendment Processes and Practices
The meaning and development of the national constitution is best traced through the many authoritative decisions made by the national supreme court in interpreting the constitution; but by contrast the interpretations given by state supreme courts of their respective constitutions are of far less permanent importance, since the real history of the constitutional development of the states can best be traced decade by decade in the many amendments …
State Constitutional Politics: Governing by Amendment in the American States
Introduction to a Special Issue on Martha Derthick’s Federalism Scholarship
Martha Derthick, who was born in Chagrin Falls, Ohio in 1933 and died in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2015, contributed in various ways to our understanding of American government during an academic career that included serving as director of governmental studies at the Brookings Institution and as Julia Allen Cooper professor of government and foreign affairs at the University of Virginia. She was a distinguished scholar of public policy, with a…
In Memoriam: Martha A. Derthick
Martha Derthick, one of the most distinguished scholars and incisive commentators on American federalism and a life-long mentor to many in the discipline, died on January 12, 2015 in Charlottesville, Virginia, following a brief illness. Born in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, in 1933, Martha graduated from Hiram College, working as a reporter and editor for the Chagrin Valley Herald in the summer during her college years, and earned a doctorate in political…
Support for Repealing Prohibition: An Analysis of State‐Wide Referenda on Ratifying the 21st Amendment
Objectives The 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution repealing national prohibition is the only amendment ratified by state conventions rather than state legislatures. The referenda held to select delegates for these conventions offer a promising source of data for identifying determinants of support for prohibition repeal. Methods We use various proxy measures to determine the importance of economic, political, and demographic forces in motiva…
Implementing Health Reform: Intergovernmental Bargaining and the Affordable Care Act
Implementation of the insurance-exchange and Medicaid-expansion provisions of the Affordable Care Act offers an opportunity to analyze the sources and extent of state and federal government leverage in bargaining over the rollout of a major federal program. What stands out from this study is state officials’ ability to leverage their administrative capacity and policy expertise as well as their power to decline participation in federal programs i…
The Rehnquist Court's Federalism Decisions
No set of decisions handed down by the Supreme Court during William Rehnquist’s tenure as Chief Justice (1986–2005) attracted more attention than a series of federalism rulings between 1992 and 2002 where the Chief Justice and Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, Sandra Day O’ Connor, and Anthony Kennedy (and occasionally a sixth Justice) relied on various constitutional provisions to limit federal power. Through its interpretations of the c…
Shaping Health Reform: State Government Influence in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has significant implications for state governments and its passage presents an opportunity to contribute to inquiries into ways that state officials wield influence in the national legislative process. State officials were occasionally influential when they drew on state experience and expertise and congress members were willing to benefit from this knowledge. State officials were also influential wh…
Convergence and divergence in state political behavior, 1970–2004
In view of the ongoing debate about the degree and direction of political polarization in the U.S., we assess whether the 50 states are converging or diverging in their behavior in state and federal elections. We find that states are diverging in their behavior in federal elections but converging in their behavior in state elections. Previous scholars have shown the need to distinguish between the degree of polarization of elites and ordinary cit…
The State of American Federalism 2008-2009: The Presidential Election, the Economic Downturn, and the Consequences for Federalism
The most consequential developments for American federalism in 2008-2009 were the presidential election and economic recession. After several years when states were the primary innovators on many issues that topped the policy agenda, the economic downturn drew renewed attention to federal policy-making, given the greater resources and capacities of the federal government. Although federalism was not a dominant issue in the presidential campaign, …
Voting on voting with the feet: A cross-county analysis of the Tennessee popular referenda to secede from the union
The Adoption of Criminal Disenfranchisement Provisions in the United States: Lessons from the State Constitutional Convention Debates
State criminal disenfranchisement provisions have recently attracted much scholarly attention. Some scholars have examined the consequences of these policies, such as the number of individuals they have disenfranchised (particularly the high percentage of African Americans), the way in which they have altered election outcomes, and their effect on voter turnout. Other scholars have assessed the persuasiveness of various justifications for these p…
Federalism, the Bush Administration, and the Transformation of American Conservatism
Most recent Republican presidents have proposed signature federalism initiatives intended to devolve power or sort out federal and state functions. The Bush administration has not propounded an explicit federalism policy of this sort, but its approach to federalism can be gleaned from analyzing presidential advocacy of legislation and constitutional amendments, fiscal policies, administrative actions, and judicial policies. What emerges from this…
Federalism, the Bush Administration, and the Transformation of American Conservatism
Most recent Republican presidents have proposed signature federalism initiatives intended to devolve power or sort out federal and state functions. The Bush administration has not propounded an explicit federalism policy of this sort, but its approach to federalism can be gleaned from analyzing presidential advocacy of legislation and constitutional amendments, fiscal policies, administrative actions, and judicial policies. What emerges from this…
The State of American Federalism 2007-2008: Resurgent State Influence in the National Policy Process and Continued State Policy Innovation
States played a prominent role in policy-making in 2007–2008 in several respects. States were more successful in securing relief from federal directives regarding the National Guard, homeland security, education, and welfare than in any prior year in the Bush presidency; they were unable to fend off several new mandates, however, particularly concerning the State Children's Health Insurance Program. States also continued to be the primary innovat…
Implementing Health Reform: Intergovernmental Bargaining and the Affordable Care Act
Implementation of the insurance-exchange and Medicaid-expansion provisions of the Affordable Care Act offers an opportunity to analyze the sources and extent of state and federal government leverage in bargaining over the rollout of a major federal program. What stands out from this study is state officials’ ability to leverage their administrative capacity and policy expertise as well as their power to decline participation in federal programs i…
Shaping Health Reform: State Government Influence in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has significant implications for state governments and its passage presents an opportunity to contribute to inquiries into ways that state officials wield influence in the national legislative process. State officials were occasionally influential when they drew on state experience and expertise and congress members were willing to benefit from this knowledge. State officials were also influential wh…
State Government Influence in the National Policy Process: Lessons from the 104th Congress
During the last several decades, state officials increasingly concluded that their interests are not adequately represented in national policymaking and sought to increase their influence through the constitutional amendment process, the federal judiciary, and the political process. This article evaluates the extent to which these institutional mechanisms were effective in advancing state interests during the 104th Congress. United States Constit…
The State of American Federalism 2008-2009: The Presidential Election, the Economic Downturn, and the Consequences for Federalism
The most consequential developments for American federalism in 2008-2009 were the presidential election and economic recession. After several years when states were the primary innovators on many issues that topped the policy agenda, the economic downturn drew renewed attention to federal policy-making, given the greater resources and capacities of the federal government. Although federalism was not a dominant issue in the presidential campaign, …
The anti-tobacco movement in the Progressive Era: A case study of direct democracy in Oregon
Understanding State Constitutions
Journal Article Understanding State Constitutions. By G. Alan Tarr. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998. x, 247 pp. $35.00, ISBN 0-691-01112-5.) Get access John Dinan John Dinan Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of American History, Volume 86, Issue 4, March 2000, Pages 1762–1763, https://doi.org/10.2307/2567614 Published: 01 March 2000
The Pardon Power and the American State Constitutional Tradition
Although the exercise of the presidential pardon power has sparked periodic controversies and generated various reform proposals in recent decades, the original Hamiltonian conception of the power-grounded in a preference for vesting clemency exclusively in the executive and keeping it as unfettered as possiblehas gone virtually unchallenged at the federal level. At the state level, however, where the exercise of gubernatorial pardons has been no…
Support for Repealing Prohibition: An Analysis of State‐Wide Referenda on Ratifying the 21st Amendment
Objectives The 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution repealing national prohibition is the only amendment ratified by state conventions rather than state legislatures. The referenda held to select delegates for these conventions offer a promising source of data for identifying determinants of support for prohibition repeal. Methods We use various proxy measures to determine the importance of economic, political, and demographic forces in motiva…
The Earth Belongs Always to the Living Generation: The Development of State Constitutional Amendment and Revision Procedures
Although the relatively flexible state constitutional amendment and revision procedures are generally considered to be inferior to the corresponding procedures in the U.S. Constitution, there have been few efforts to explain why state constitution-makers adopted these procedures, and as a result we have not been in a position to assess adequately the merits of the state approach. This article undertakes to explain the development of state constit…
The Institutionalization of State Resistance to Federal Directives in the 21st Century
State officials have challenged a number of federal policies during the Trump administration. In this article, I chronicle and categorize the tools that states have employed in resisting federal policies and show that states have relied primarily on three tactics: filing lawsuits, declining participation in federal programs, and passing policies inconsistent with federal policies. I also explain why state resistance has become such a prominent fe…
The Rehnquist Court's Federalism Decisions
No set of decisions handed down by the Supreme Court during William Rehnquist’s tenure as Chief Justice (1986–2005) attracted more attention than a series of federalism rulings between 1992 and 2002 where the Chief Justice and Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, Sandra Day O’ Connor, and Anthony Kennedy (and occasionally a sixth Justice) relied on various constitutional provisions to limit federal power. Through its interpretations of the c…
Strengthening the Political Safeguards of Federalism: The Fate of Recent Federalism Legislation in the U.S. Congress
Although a number of measures have been proposed during the past decade to require the U. S. Congress to take more account of state and local interests, whether in regard to mandates, preemptions, regulations, or grants-in-aid, the only major success has been passage of the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995 (UMRA). This article examines the fate of the dozen bills that progressed far enough to be the subject of a committee hearing or receive a…
Consequences of the Rehnquist Court's Federalism Decisions for Congressional Lawmaking
Scholars generally agree on the doctrinal significance of the Rehnquist Court's post-1990 federalism decisions, but there is less agreement about the consequences of these decisions. A previous study examined the direct consequences of these decisions, by inquiring into the extent to which Congress was able to revise and reenact statutes that were struck down by the Court, but it left unexamined the effects on Congress's ability to legislate in o…
America's Jeffersonian Experiment: Remaking State Constitutions, 1820-1850
Journal Article America's Jeffersonian Experiment: Remaking State Constitutions, 1820–1850. By Laura J. Scalia. (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 1999. xxiv, 218 pp. $36.00, ISBN 087580-244-3.) Get access John Dinan John Dinan Davidson College, Davidson, North Carolina Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of American History, Volume 87, Issue 4, March 2001, Page 1480, https://doi.org/10.2307/…
In Memoriam: Martha A. Derthick
Martha Derthick, one of the most distinguished scholars and incisive commentators on American federalism and a life-long mentor to many in the discipline, died on January 12, 2015 in Charlottesville, Virginia, following a brief illness. Born in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, in 1933, Martha graduated from Hiram College, working as a reporter and editor for the Chagrin Valley Herald in the summer during her college years, and earned a doctorate in political…
Voting on voting with the feet: A cross-county analysis of the Tennessee popular referenda to secede from the union
The Adoption of Criminal Disenfranchisement Provisions in the United States: Lessons from the State Constitutional Convention Debates
State criminal disenfranchisement provisions have recently attracted much scholarly attention. Some scholars have examined the consequences of these policies, such as the number of individuals they have disenfranchised (particularly the high percentage of African Americans), the way in which they have altered election outcomes, and their effect on voter turnout. Other scholars have assessed the persuasiveness of various justifications for these p…
Don’t You be My Neighbor: Support for Racial-Exclusion Constitutional Provisions in Mid-19th Century Indiana and Illinois
Racially discriminatory provisions in the U.S. Constitution and southern state constitutions have been extensively analyzed, but insufficient attention has been brought to these provisions when included in northern state constitutions. We examine constitutional provisions excluding blacks from entering the state that were adopted by various northern states in the mid-19th Century. Previous scholarship has focused on the statements and votes of th…
Voting on Prohibition: Disentangling Preferences on Alcohol and Decentralization
We contribute to an understanding of the determinants of voter support for US prohibition policies in the early 1900s, by separating substantive preferences for wet versus dry policies from preferences for centralized versus decentralized control. Prior studies of prohibition referenda have generated various conclusions about which groups supported and opposed prohibition, whether regarding the role of religion, urban/rural residence, immigrant s…
Congressional Responses to the Rehnquist Court's Federalism Decisions
Scholars who have sought to assess the consequences of the Rehnquist Court's federalism decisions have identified various means by which Congress can overcome the effects of these rulings, but there have been few efforts to investigate the degree to which Congress has employed these means. This study finds that Congress has enjoyed limited success in responding to the Court's rulings. Significantly, though, the failure to overcome the effects of …
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State Government Influence in the National Policy Process: Lessons from the 104th Congress
During the last several decades, state officials increasingly concluded that their interests are not adequately represented in national policymaking and sought to increase their influence through the constitutional amendment process, the federal judiciary, and the political process. This article evaluates the extent to which these institutional mechanisms were effective in advancing state interests during the 104th Congress. United States Constit…
The Rights Revolution: Lawyers, Activists, and Supreme Courts in Comparative Perspective
Journal Article The Rights Revolution: Lawyers, Activists, and Supreme Courts in Comparative Perspective. By Charles R. Epp. Chicago, Keeping the People's Liberties: Legislators, Citizens, and Judges as Guardians of Rights. By John J. Dinan. Lawrence and The Strange Career of Legal Liberalism. By Laura Kalman. New Haven Get access Michael Les Benedict Michael Les Benedict Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio Search for other works by this author…
Understanding State Constitutions
Journal Article Understanding State Constitutions. By G. Alan Tarr. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998. x, 247 pp. $35.00, ISBN 0-691-01112-5.) Get access John Dinan John Dinan Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of American History, Volume 86, Issue 4, March 2000, Pages 1762–1763, https://doi.org/10.2307/2567614 Published: 01 March 2000
The Earth Belongs Always to the Living Generation: The Development of State Constitutional Amendment and Revision Procedures
Although the relatively flexible state constitutional amendment and revision procedures are generally considered to be inferior to the corresponding procedures in the U.S. Constitution, there have been few efforts to explain why state constitution-makers adopted these procedures, and as a result we have not been in a position to assess adequately the merits of the state approach. This article undertakes to explain the development of state constit…
America's Jeffersonian Experiment: Remaking State Constitutions, 1820-1850
Journal Article America's Jeffersonian Experiment: Remaking State Constitutions, 1820–1850. By Laura J. Scalia. (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 1999. xxiv, 218 pp. $36.00, ISBN 087580-244-3.) Get access John Dinan John Dinan Davidson College, Davidson, North Carolina Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of American History, Volume 87, Issue 4, March 2001, Page 1480, https://doi.org/10.2307/…
Congressional Responses to the Rehnquist Court's Federalism Decisions
Scholars who have sought to assess the consequences of the Rehnquist Court's federalism decisions have identified various means by which Congress can overcome the effects of these rulings, but there have been few efforts to investigate the degree to which Congress has employed these means. This study finds that Congress has enjoyed limited success in responding to the Court's rulings. Significantly, though, the failure to overcome the effects of …
The Pardon Power and the American State Constitutional Tradition
Although the exercise of the presidential pardon power has sparked periodic controversies and generated various reform proposals in recent decades, the original Hamiltonian conception of the power-grounded in a preference for vesting clemency exclusively in the executive and keeping it as unfettered as possiblehas gone virtually unchallenged at the federal level. At the state level, however, where the exercise of gubernatorial pardons has been no…
Strengthening the Political Safeguards of Federalism: The Fate of Recent Federalism Legislation in the U.S. Congress
Although a number of measures have been proposed during the past decade to require the U. S. Congress to take more account of state and local interests, whether in regard to mandates, preemptions, regulations, or grants-in-aid, the only major success has been passage of the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995 (UMRA). This article examines the fate of the dozen bills that progressed far enough to be the subject of a committee hearing or receive a…
Consequences of the Rehnquist Court's Federalism Decisions for Congressional Lawmaking
Scholars generally agree on the doctrinal significance of the Rehnquist Court's post-1990 federalism decisions, but there is less agreement about the consequences of these decisions. A previous study examined the direct consequences of these decisions, by inquiring into the extent to which Congress was able to revise and reenact statutes that were struck down by the Court, but it left unexamined the effects on Congress's ability to legislate in o…
The anti-tobacco movement in the Progressive Era: A case study of direct democracy in Oregon
The American State Constitutional Tradition
Journal Article The American State Constitutional Tradition Get access Dinan John J.. The American State Constitutional Tradition. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2006. ix, 430 pp. $35.00. James T. Mchugh James T. Mchugh Roosevelt University and American University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar American Journal of Legal History, Volume 47, Issue 4, October 2005, Pages 459–460, https://doi.org/10.23…
Voting on voting with the feet: A cross-county analysis of the Tennessee popular referenda to secede from the union
The Adoption of Criminal Disenfranchisement Provisions in the United States: Lessons from the State Constitutional Convention Debates
State criminal disenfranchisement provisions have recently attracted much scholarly attention. Some scholars have examined the consequences of these policies, such as the number of individuals they have disenfranchised (particularly the high percentage of African Americans), the way in which they have altered election outcomes, and their effect on voter turnout. Other scholars have assessed the persuasiveness of various justifications for these p…
Federalism, the Bush Administration, and the Transformation of American Conservatism
Most recent Republican presidents have proposed signature federalism initiatives intended to devolve power or sort out federal and state functions. The Bush administration has not propounded an explicit federalism policy of this sort, but its approach to federalism can be gleaned from analyzing presidential advocacy of legislation and constitutional amendments, fiscal policies, administrative actions, and judicial policies. What emerges from this…
The State of American Federalism 2007-2008: Resurgent State Influence in the National Policy Process and Continued State Policy Innovation
States played a prominent role in policy-making in 2007–2008 in several respects. States were more successful in securing relief from federal directives regarding the National Guard, homeland security, education, and welfare than in any prior year in the Bush presidency; they were unable to fend off several new mandates, however, particularly concerning the State Children's Health Insurance Program. States also continued to be the primary innovat…
The State of American Federalism 2008-2009: The Presidential Election, the Economic Downturn, and the Consequences for Federalism
The most consequential developments for American federalism in 2008-2009 were the presidential election and economic recession. After several years when states were the primary innovators on many issues that topped the policy agenda, the economic downturn drew renewed attention to federal policy-making, given the greater resources and capacities of the federal government. Although federalism was not a dominant issue in the presidential campaign, …
Convergence and divergence in state political behavior, 1970–2004
In view of the ongoing debate about the degree and direction of political polarization in the U.S., we assess whether the 50 states are converging or diverging in their behavior in state and federal elections. We find that states are diverging in their behavior in federal elections but converging in their behavior in state elections. Previous scholars have shown the need to distinguish between the degree of polarization of elites and ordinary cit…
The Rehnquist Court's Federalism Decisions
No set of decisions handed down by the Supreme Court during William Rehnquist’s tenure as Chief Justice (1986–2005) attracted more attention than a series of federalism rulings between 1992 and 2002 where the Chief Justice and Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, Sandra Day O’ Connor, and Anthony Kennedy (and occasionally a sixth Justice) relied on various constitutional provisions to limit federal power. Through its interpretations of the c…
Shaping Health Reform: State Government Influence in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has significant implications for state governments and its passage presents an opportunity to contribute to inquiries into ways that state officials wield influence in the national legislative process. State officials were occasionally influential when they drew on state experience and expertise and congress members were willing to benefit from this knowledge. State officials were also influential wh…
Support for Repealing Prohibition: An Analysis of State‐Wide Referenda on Ratifying the 21st Amendment
Objectives The 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution repealing national prohibition is the only amendment ratified by state conventions rather than state legislatures. The referenda held to select delegates for these conventions offer a promising source of data for identifying determinants of support for prohibition repeal. Methods We use various proxy measures to determine the importance of economic, political, and demographic forces in motiva…
Implementing Health Reform: Intergovernmental Bargaining and the Affordable Care Act
Implementation of the insurance-exchange and Medicaid-expansion provisions of the Affordable Care Act offers an opportunity to analyze the sources and extent of state and federal government leverage in bargaining over the rollout of a major federal program. What stands out from this study is state officials’ ability to leverage their administrative capacity and policy expertise as well as their power to decline participation in federal programs i…
In Memoriam: Martha A. Derthick
Martha Derthick, one of the most distinguished scholars and incisive commentators on American federalism and a life-long mentor to many in the discipline, died on January 12, 2015 in Charlottesville, Virginia, following a brief illness. Born in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, in 1933, Martha graduated from Hiram College, working as a reporter and editor for the Chagrin Valley Herald in the summer during her college years, and earned a doctorate in political…
Introduction to a Special Issue on Martha Derthick’s Federalism Scholarship
Martha Derthick, who was born in Chagrin Falls, Ohio in 1933 and died in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2015, contributed in various ways to our understanding of American government during an academic career that included serving as director of governmental studies at the Brookings Institution and as Julia Allen Cooper professor of government and foreign affairs at the University of Virginia. She was a distinguished scholar of public policy, with a…
State Constitutional Politics: Governing by Amendment in the American States
Scholars have increasingly been drawn in recent years to the study of state courts and constitutions, partly on account of state court decisions providing more protection for rights than is afforded by U.S. Supreme Court decisions but also because of state constitutional amendments enacted in response to these rulings.From the 1970s onward, state courts have relied on state constitutional provisions to restructure school-finance systems, ban capi…
Political science (36 works) · Politics (29 works) · Law (28 works) · American Constitutional Law and Politics (24 works) · Law (24 works) · State (computer science (20 works) · Economics (16 works) · Legal and Constitutional Studies (14 works) · Sociology (14 works) · Federalism (13 works)