Governors, Legislatures, and Budgets

How does gubernatorial and legislative influence over state spending vary across the American states? This is the question that Governors, Legislators, and Budgets sets out to answer. Clynch and Lauth offer case studies from all areas of the country. Demographically, they range from very rural to heavily urban. They also show a wide diversity in their center of power. Some have their power strongly resting with the governor. Other states show domination by the legislature, and still others paint a picture of evenly dispersed power.

This volume provides the contextual richness needed to understand the executive-legislative interaction which occurs during the recurring budgeting process. Chapters two to four focus on strong executive states with gubernatorial domination, approaching the executive centered process envisioned by reformers. The next four chapters concentrate on a variety of states in which the legislature retains the ability to effectively challenge the executive. The remaining chapters examine states with legislative influence and those with unusual arrangements. A closing essay by Clynch and Lauth completes the volume.

EDWARD J. CLYNCH is Professor and Head of the Department of Political Science at Mississippi State University. He is the author of many articles that have appeared in the International Journal of Public Administration, Public Administration Quarterly, State and Local Government Review, and Southeastern Political Review.

THOMAS P. LAUTH is Professor and Head of the Department of Political Science at the University of Georgia, Athens. He is also co-author of Compromised Compliance: Implementation of the 1965 Voting Rights Act (Greenwood Press, 1982), and The Politics of State and City Administration. He has also written articles which have appeared in Public Budgeting and Finance, the International Journal of Public Administration, and Legislative Studies Quarterly.