Connecting Theory With Practice: The Institutional Evolvement of U.S. Counties Functioning as Regional Service Providers

Abstract

This study extends the literature on county government structure by examining the three basic forms of county governments and their long-term effects on regional service spending. An examination of 1,532 U.S. counties between 1977 and 2012 reveals that those with the commission government form produce on average less regional service spending than those with reformed government structures. Examining the two major distinctions in reformed government types reveals that elected executive governments spend on average more than those with the commission-administrator form. However, the amount of increase for elected executive spending was very minor. The findings also reveal that the ability to establish home rule charters alters the effects of government structure for commission and commission-administrator counties. Meanwhile, charter-enabling laws matter little regarding the effects for elected executive counties. The analytical results lead to four major points for consideration regarding the link between county service provision and county institutional arrangements.

Keywords

county government form of government county expenditures county service provision regional services government structure

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Beck

Katz

J. N.

(1995). What to do (and not do) with time-series cross-sectional data. American Journal of Political Science, 89, 634-647.

Benton

J. E.

(2002a). Counties as service delivery agents: Changing expectations and roles. Westport, CT: Praeger.

Benton

J. E.

(2002b). County service delivery: Does government structure matter? Public Administration Review, 62, 471-479.

Benton

J. E.

(2003). The impact of structural reform on county government service provision. Social Science Quarterly, 84, 858-874.

Benton

J. E.

(2005). An assessment of research on American counties. Public Administration Review, 65, 462-474.

Benton

J. E.

Menzel

D. C.

(1993). County services: The emergence of full-service government. In Berman

D. R.

(Ed.), County governments in an era of change (pp. 53-70). Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

Boehmke

F. J.

(2008). GRINTER: A STATA utility to graph interaction effects after regression models (Version 1.5). Iowa City: University of Iowa.

Boyne

G. A.

(1992). Local government structure and performance: Lessons from America? Public Administration, 70, 333-357.

Brambor

Clark

W. R.

Golder

(2006). Understanding interaction models: Improving empirical analysis. Political Analyses, 14, 63-82.

10.

Carr

J. B.

(2006). Local government autonomy and state reliance on special district governments: A reassessment. Political Research Quarterly, 59, 481-492.

11.

Carr

J. B.

(2015). What have we learned about the performance of council-manager government? A review and synthesis of research. Public Administration Review, 75, 673-689.

12.

Carr

J. B.

Farmer

(2011). Contingent effects of municipal and county TELs on special district usage in the United States. Publius: The Journal of Federalism, 41, 709-733.

13.

Carr

J. B.

Karuppusamy

(2010). Reassessing the link between city structure and fiscal policy: Is the problem poor measures of governmental structure? The American Review of Public Administration, 40, 209-228.

14.

Choi

S. O.

Bae

Kwon

Feiock

R. C.

(2010). County limits: Policy types and expenditure priorities. The American Review of Public Administration, 40, 29-45.

15.

Clingermayer

J. C.

Feiock

R. C.

(2001). Institutional constraints and policy choice: An exploration of local governance. Albany: State University of New York Press.

16.

DeSantis

V. S.

Renner

(1993). Governing the county: Authority, structure, and elections. In Berman

D. R.

(Ed.), County governments in an era of change (pp. 15-28). Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

17.

DeSantis

V. S.

Renner

(1996). Structure and policy expenditures in American counties. In Menzel

D. C.

(Ed.), The American county: Frontiers of knowledge (pp. 80-91). Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama Press.

18.

Duncombe

H. S.

(1966). County government in America. Washington, DC: National Association of Counties.

19.

Edmiston

K. D.

(2003). State and local e-government: Prospects and challenges. The American Review of Public Administration, 33, 20-45.

20.

Ellison

Hardey

(2013). Social media and local government: Citizenship, consumption and democracy. Local Government Studies, 40, 21-40.

21.

Farmer

J. L.

(2011). County government choices for redistributive services. Urban Affairs Review, 47, 60-83.

22.

Farmer

J. L.

(2015). County-nonprofit service arrangements: The roles of federal and state fiscal involvement. Publius: The Journal of Federalism, 45, 117-138.

23.

Feiock

R. C.

(2002). A quasi-market framework for local economic development competition. Journal of Urban Affairs, 24, 123-142.

24.

Feiock

R. C.

(2004). Politics, institutions and local land-use regulation. Urban Studies, 41, 363-375.

25.

Feiock

R. C.

(2007). Rational choice and regional governance. Journal of Urban Affairs, 29, 47-63.

26.

Feiock

R. C.

(2013). The institutional collective action framework. Policy Studies Journal, 41, 397-425.

27.

Feiock

R. C.

Jeong

Kim

(2003). Credible commitment and council-manager government: Implications for policy instrument choices. Public Administration Review, 63, 616-625.

28.

Howard

(2012). Connecting with Communities: How local government is using social media to engage with citizens. Open Publications of UTS Scholars. Retrieved from https://opus.lib.uts.edu.au/handle/10453/42107

29.

International City/County Management Association. (1983-2007). Municipal yearbook. Washington, DC: International City/County Management Association Press.

30.

International City/County Management Association. (1988-2002). County form of government. Washington, DC: International City/County Management Association Press.

31.

King

Tomz

Wittenberg

(2000). Making the most of statistical analyses: Improving interpretation and presentation. American Journal of Political Science, 44, 347-361.

32.

Kingsley

Brummel

Lamb

Higgins

Biros

Smith

(2012). Making the most of social media: 7 lessons from successful cities. Philadelphia, PA: Fels Institute of Government.

33.

Krane

Rigos

P. N.

Hill

M. B.

(2000). Home rule in America: A fifty-state handbook. Washington, DC: CQ Press.

34.

Lineberry

R. L.

Fowler

E. P.

(1967). Reformism and public policies in American cities. The American Political Science Review, 61, 701-716.

35.

Lubell

Feiock

R. C.

Ramirez

(2005). Political institutions and conservation by local governments. Urban Affairs Review, 40, 706-729.

36.

Menzel

D. C.

(1996). The American county: Frontiers of knowledge. Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama Press.

37.

Miller

(2000). Above politics: Credible commitment and efficiency in the design of public agencies. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 10, 289-327.

38.

Monnat

S. M.

Picket

C. B.

(2011). Rural/urban differences in self-rated health: Examining the roles of county size and metropolitan adjacency. Health & Place, 17, 311-319.

39.

Morgan

D. R.

Pelissero

J. P.

(1980). Urban policy: Does political structure matter? American Political Science Review, 74, 999-1006.

40.

National Association of Counties. (2010). County authority: A state by state report. Retrieved from www.nvnaco.org/wp-content/uploads/County-Authority-a-State-by-State-Report.pdf

41.

Park

K. O.

(1996). Determinants of county government growth. In Menzel

D. C.

(Ed.), The American county: Frontiers of knowledge (pp. 34-54). Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama Press.

42.

Peterson

P. E.

(1981). City limits. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

43.

Ramirez

(2009). Local political institutions and smart growth: An empirical study of the politics of compact development. Urban Affairs Review, 45, 218-246.

44.

Schneider

Park

O. K.

(1989). Metropolitan counties as service delivery agents: The still forgotten governments. Public Administration Review, 49, 345-352.

45.

Streib

Waugh

W. L.

Jr. (1991). Probing the limits of county reform in an era of scarcity: A national survey of county administrators and executives. Public Administration Quarterly, 15, 378-395.

46.

Svara

J. H.

(1996). Leadership and professionalism in county government. In Menzel

D. C.

(Ed.), The American county: Frontiers of knowledge (pp. 109-127). Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama Press.

47.

Tomz

Wittenberg

King

(2003). Clarify: Software for interpreting and presenting statistical results. Journal of Statistical Software, 8, 1-30.

48.

U.S. Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations. (1972). Profile of county governments, 1972. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

49.

U.S. Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations. (1993). State laws governing local government structure and administration. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

50.

U.S. Census Bureau. (1970-2007). The American community survey. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Commerce.

51.

U.S. Census Bureau. (1977-2007). Census of governments: Vol. 1. Government organizations. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Commerce.

52.

U.S. Census Bureau. (2015). Historical finances of individual governments. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Commerce.

53.

Wooldridge

J. M.

(2009). Introductory econometrics: A modern approach (4th ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.