Texas Cities in the Era of Government Transparency

We are in the Era of Government Transparency. Recently, politicians from President Barack Obama to Texas Governor Rick Perry have touted a commitment to openness and transparency in their respective administrations. Citizens have also embraced the idea. No longer content with viewing the government as a mysterious black box where taxes go in and services come out, taxpayers today expect, and in some cases demand, to know how decisions are made. As discussions ensue about growing distrust between citizens and government, increased transparency can offer a way to bridge this divide. Clear, organized and useful data posted online is a good indicator of a city’s transparency. It is best for city governments to engage their citizens in a dialogue about what information the public wants and what format will encourage them to best use it

Adverse Selection, Political Parties, and Policy Delegation in the American Federal System

We extend research on the nexus of federalism, policy delegation, and American politics by asserting that partisan politics at both the national and subnational levels of government matter when explaining variations in U.S. federal intergovernmental policymaking. Specifically, we maintain that national level institutions not only respond to the partisan composition of state level institutions in a direct manner, but also use this information as a means to mitigate adverse selection problems that they confront when making policy in a federal system. Using a novel data set of 459 U.S. public laws spanning the 1947--98 period, we uncover support for the importance of vertical partisan institutional relationships on policy delegation in American federalism. The conclusions drawn from this study highlight the importance attached to vertical institutional relationships for understanding policy delegation by showing how state governments influence the balance of policymaking authority in the United States, even when formal decision-making authority resides at the national level. Copyright 2005, Oxford University Press.

Intergovernmental Partnerships and Rural Development: An Overview Assessment of the National Rural Development Partnership

In 1990, a new intergovernmental mechanism was adopted in an attempt to improve the way rural development programs and policies are developed and administered. Now known as the National Rural Development Partnership, this initiative centers around the activities of Rural Development Councils established at the State and National level. Based on case studies of 16 State Councils and their Washington, DC-based counterpart, this report examines how the Councils have evolved and what they have accomplished, individually and in partnership with one another, during their formative years