State Economic Development in the 1990s: Politics and Policy Learning

Abstract

State economic development is in a state of ferment at mid-decade, but analysts are not certain about the direction of changes going on. This article uses a national survey of state development agencies to explore three possible scenarios: that states are losing interest in economic development, that they are regressing from the entrepreneurial strategies of the 1980s to their old industrial recruitment habits, and that they are embracing "Third Wave" principles. Evidence indicates that all three of these shifts are occurring simultaneously, although not with equal force. Although one argument is that these changes are the product of a policy-learning process informed by implementation and evaluation experiences, a stronger case can be made that the states are focusing and winnowing their programs in response to political cues in the environment. Program survival rather than effectiveness appears to be an overriding goal.