Stretched Net: The Retrenchment of State and Local Social Welfare Spending Before the Recession

Gais, Thomas

doi:10.1093/publius/pjp011

Cited by 15 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 11 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Legislators in states with high income per capita might feel that they have a heightened risk of revenue loss, particularly since online shopping is conditioned by SES (Mazerov ). Additionally, high‐income states are also associated with more advanced and/or generous taxation and benefit structures (Gais ; Scruggs ). Wealthier states should therefore have a stronger proclivity to attempt a new type of taxation and to also pass it, especially if it is likely to be a progressive tax.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A number of portable theories have been generated from this research: political–institutional structure (Skocpol and Amenta ), “bottom‐up” pressure, like social movements (Quadagno ), class‐based power resources (Jenkins et al. ), corporate dominance (Domhoff ), racial/ethnic antagonism and competition (Quadagno ), diffusion (Soule and Zylan ), citizen preferences (Brooks and Manza ), state resources (Gais ), and policy domains (Laumann and Knoke ). Much of this research focuses on national level policy, however a growing portion examines variation in state and local policy—an important topic given the highly federated U.S. political system.…”

Section: Theoretical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Scholars have used income per capita as one indicator of economic development and thus implicitly as an indicator of state development. Indeed, high income per capita is correlated with generous social policy (Gais ; Scruggs ). This same logic should apply to tax policy, especially progressive taxation, as tax revenue is a primary source of U.S. state‐level funding.…”

Section: Theoretical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Just One Click Away: The Politics of E‐Commerce Sales Tax Policy

Bjorklund

2016

Sociological Inquiry

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

E-commerce has altered the relationship between consumers, businesses, and U.S. states. E-retailers are not required to collect sales tax from their customers, thus depriving fiscally insecure states of tax revenue, and providing a competitive advantage for eretailers, like Amazon Inc., in their struggle for market share with brick-and-mortar stores, like Walmart. Attempts at e-commerce sales tax policy by state legislators and brick-and-mortar lobbyists failed until 2008 when New York successfully passed legislation. A subsequent wave of legislation ensued, and between 2008 and 2012, e-commerce sales tax legislation left committee in fourteen states, each experiencing various levels of success. Existing explanatory efforts have not fully accounted for the combinatorial effect of political-institutional structure and market contestation in U.S. state-level policy creation, as well as the likelihood of multiple pathways to passage. Embracing this framework, I use fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) to uncover three sufficient pathways for successful passage of e-commerce sales tax policy. Two paths highlight the confluence of large retailer pressure and a conductive political-institutional structure facing fiscal stress, while the third path reflects political-institutional forces. These findings corroborate, as well as build upon, our knowledge of fiscal sociology, policy domains, and corporate power in American politics.

show abstract

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Theoretical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Theoretical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Just One Click Away: The Politics of E‐Commerce Sales Tax Policy

Bjorklund

2016

Sociological Inquiry

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…For example, areas of the Spanish and US welfare states that are the responsibilities of autonomous communities and states are under more fiscal pressure than areas in the hands of the central governments (Greer 2009). Gais (2009), accounting for the complex system of US welfare programmes, presents an intricate comparison of US state and local expenditures on cash assistance, medical assistance, and social services and discerns a decline in assistance and growing divergence in state spending depending on fiscal capacity. The historic roots of this differentiated American welfare state, other major scholars argue (Lieberman and Lapinski 2001;Katznelson 2013;Mickey 2013), involves precisely the exploitation of federalism in social policy design to preserve inequality in undemocratic racial enclaves in the South.…”

Section: Macro-comparative Approachesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Differences That Matter: Overcoming Methodological Nationalism in Comparative Social Policy Research

Greer

Elliott

Oliver.

2015

Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis: Research and Practice

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Welfare states are often discussed as if they were territorially homogeneous state-wide institutions measurable by state-wide expenditure averages and explained by country-level variables. It is rare in comparative policy studies to investigate the role of territorial politics in the outcomes of even federal countries. This article argues, using social policy examples in the UK and US, that the impact of intergovernmental finance and division of labour profoundly shapes social investment and redistribution -producing almost as much expenditure variance within the US as within the OECD. The findings show the importance of incorporating territorial politics and intergovernmental arrangements into comparative welfare state and policy analysis.

show abstract

“…The conventional wisdom asserts that the capacity of local governments to assist their most needy residents, never very great, has declined in an era of rising conservative attitudes and fiscal stress . Hacker and Pierson (, p. 2) provide a typical assessment when they claim that recently “state and local governments, faced with unprecedented budget deficits, were slashing gaping holes in the safety net” (see also Gais, ). While some state and local governments in the United States have indeed reduced social welfare programs during the current recession, it is not yet clear how deep and widespread these cuts are.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Public Assistance Policies of Cities and the Justice Concerns of Elected Officials: The Centrality of the Floors Principle in Addressing Urban Poverty

Schumaker¹,

Kelly²

2013

Policy Studies Journal

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

City councils are significant, though seldom central, actors in local policy networks providing public assistance to disadvantaged residents. Mayors and council members in 12 American cities more often support than oppose public assistance initiatives. They claim that their own normative judgments are more important to their preferences and voting behavior on such matters than are public opinion, group demands, or economic considerations. While such elected officials hold a variety of justice principles, the most important of these affecting their positions on public assistance issues is the “floors” principle. A broad ethical commitment to providing social minimums enhances support for living‐wage ordinances, for linking subsidies for economic development to assistance to less advantaged citizens, and for exempting spending on social services from budget cuts. We discuss the implications of these findings for major theories of urban politics and policies—collective‐action theory, regime theory, and pluralism—and for advocates on behalf of the urban poor.

show abstract

Stretched Net: The Retrenchment of State and Local Social Welfare Spending Before the Recession

Cited by 15 publications

References 11 publications

Just One Click Away: The Politics of E‐Commerce Sales Tax Policy

Just One Click Away: The Politics of E‐Commerce Sales Tax Policy

Differences That Matter: Overcoming Methodological Nationalism in Comparative Social Policy Research

The Public Assistance Policies of Cities and the Justice Concerns of Elected Officials: The Centrality of the Floors Principle in Addressing Urban Poverty

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About