New Governance for Rural America: Creating Intergovernmental Partnerships

Throughout the 1990s public demand for a fundamental shift in the relationship between government and its citizens has intensified. In response, a new governance model has emerged, emphasizing decreased federal control in favor of intergovernmental collaboration and increased involvement of state, local, and private agencies. As the authors of this volume show, one of the best examples of new governance can be found in the National and State Rural Development Councils (NRDC and SRDC), created in 1990 as the result of President Bush\u27s Rural Development Initiative and now called the Rural Development Partnership. This effort was part of a move within policymaking circles to redefine a rural America that was no longer synonymous with family farming and that required innovative new solutions for economic revival. By 1994 twenty-nine states had created and ten other states were in the process of forming such councils. In this first detailed analysis of the NRDC and SRDCs, the authors examine the successes and failures of the original eight councils in Kansas, Maine, Mississippi, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, and Washington; as well as eight other councils subsequently created in Iowa, New Mexico, North Carolina, Vermont, New York, North Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming. Combining empirical analysis with current theories about networks and inter-organizational relations, this volume should appeal to academics and practitioners interested in rural development policy, public administration, public policy and management, and intergovernmental relations. Description Beryl A. Radin is professor of Public Administration and Policy in the Graduate School of Public Affairs at Rockefeller College of the State University of New York at Albany. This Kansas Open Books title is funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Humanities Open Book Program.https://digitalcommons.pittstate.edu/kansas_open_books/1051/thumbnail.jp

The \u27Convenient\u27 Environmental Presidency of George H.W. Bush: A Kingdonian Assessment

Air pollution and climate change were two important environmental issues squarely confronting President George H.W. Bush when he took office. By the end of his term, the first problem had been addressed, the second had been sidestepped. Why the differing outcomes? In seeking an answer this question, we utilize Kingdon’s (1995) agenda setting framework. Using documentary evidence found in presidential archives, we find an Administration wrestling with divergent views and approaches as it sought to manage and manipulate the agenda setting process in both instances. Policy solutions to the problem of air pollution could be designed in a manner congruent with Administration preferences. However, the issue of global climate change was too large, complex, and ambiguous given the policy atmosphere of the Bush years, and too new, to be addressed in the ordinary flow of Washington’s political work