Subject(s): Federalism - Environmental policy -- Criminal justice | State governments in United States. -- Local government in United States. -- New directions for state and local government : Studying state and local government in twenty-first century, capacity of states and localities, designers and consumers of government -- Federalism and states : History of US federalism, models of federalism, intergovernmental relations, federal purse strings -- State constitutions : Evolution of state constitutions, weakness of constitutions, constitutional reform, methods of constitutional change, state responsiveness and constitutional reform -- Citizen participation and elections : Direct democracy, citizen access to government -- political parties, interest groups and campaigns : Political parties, interested groups, political campaigns -- State legislatures : Legislative dynamics, legislative behavior, legislative reform and capacity, relationship with executive branch, legislatures and capacity -- Governors : Formal and informal powers of governor, removal from office, capability of US governors -- Public administration - budgeting and service delivery : Public employees in state and local government human resource policy in state and local government, politics of bureaucracy, reinventing government, public administration -- Judiciary : Structure of state court systems, judicial decision making, judicial federalism, administrative and organizational improvements in state courts -- Structure of local government : Orientations to communities, county government, municipal government, towns and townships, special / school districts, communities and governance -- Local leadership and governance : Community power, property rights, local executives/legislatures, leadership and capacity -- State-local relations : Distribution of authority, metropolitics, states and urban policy, state and their rural communities, interaction of state and local government -- State and local finance : Revenues, political economy of taxation, managing money, state and local financial relations, current issues in state and local finance -- Economic development : Regional differences in economic prosperity, approaches to economic development, politics of economic growth, current approaches, persistent questions, implications of economic development policy -- Education policy : Crisis in education intergovernmental roles in education, actors in education policy, educational innovation in states, continuing challenges of public education -- Criminal justice : Intergovernmental roles in criminal justice, ongoing challenges of criminal justice, actors in criminal justice policy, policy participants interact, policy alternatives for state and localities, continuing challenge in crime and corrections -- Social welfare and health care policy : Poverty, current social welfare policy, state innovations, health care, economics -- Environmental policy : Political economy of environmental protection, clean air, water and politics, greening of states and localities, waste, policymakers