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- Title
The Rise of Specialized Governance in American Federalism: Testing Links Between Local Government Autonomy and Formation of Special District Governments.
- Authors
Yu Shi
- Abstract
In this article, I investigate whether the growth of special districts in the fifty states from1972 to 2002 can be explained by choices made by local general-purpose governments in response to different degrees of government autonomy in the fiscal, institutional, and political system. Focusing on three dimensions of government autonomyçlocal government capacity, local government discretion, and local government importanceçI find that the growth of certain types of special districts is in part a response to state laws constraining government autonomy of generalpurpose governments. The findings also suggest that reliance on special districts by local generalpurpose governments would decrease if they had stronger own-source revenue-raising capacities and more diversified tax revenue bases. In contrast with prior studies, the analysis provides limited evidence to support the notion that special districts are formed by general-purpose governments to circumvent fiscal restrictions, such as debt limits and tax and expenditure limitations.
- Subjects
UNITED States; FEDERAL government of the United States; UNITED States politics &; government; LOCAL government; POLITICAL autonomy; SPECIAL districts
- Publication
Publius: The Journal of Federalism, 2017, Vol 47, Issue 1, p99
- ISSN
0048-5950
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1093/publius/pjw025