Governing States and Localities - Vantage Learning Platform

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KEY FEATURES OF GOVERNING STATES AND LOCALITIES, NINTH EDITION

New to this Edition:

All chapters have been revised substantially, with the content updated throughout to reflect the latest issues, trends, and political changes, including the following:

• Fresh coverage of the lingering, and often long lasting, effects of the COVID pandemic on state and local politics.
• Greater emphasis has been given to the growing diffusion of partisan polarization through various levels of state and local government.
• All chapter introductions have been updated and most boxes (see descriptions below) are new. These provide fresh and contemporary context for the subject matter of each chapter.
• Although the content is significantly revised for the ninth edition, the comparative method continues to provide the text's core thematic pedagogical structure.

Key Features:

• A Difference That Makes a Difference boxes provide clear examples of how variations among states and localities can be used to explain a wide range of political and policy phenomena. These pieces detail the ways the institutions, regulations, political culture, demographics, and other factors of a particular state shape its constitution, the way its political parties function, how its citizens tend to vote, how it allocates its financial resources, and why its courts are structured the way they are, to name a few.
• Local Focus boxes spotlight the ways localities function independently of the states and show how they are both constrained and empowered by intergovernmental ties. From battles to wrest control of their budgets from the state to constitutional restrictions on how they can tax and spend, the topics addressed in these boxes showcase the rich variety represented in these nearly 87,000 substate entities.
• Policy in Practice boxes demonstrate how different states and localities have interpreted and implemented the legislation handed down from higher levels of government, and the consequences of these decisions. The impact of declining agency fees on public unions, the difficulties and implications of city-county mergers, and the policy implications of the power imbalance between states and localities are just some of the issues addressed.
• Top Ten Takeaways features reinforce key themes and ideas.
• Each chapter also includes a set of highlighted key concepts. These terms are defined near the places where they are introduced in the text and are compiled into a list at the end of each chapter, with corresponding page numbers.
• A comprehensive glossary of key terms precedes the book's index.