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Chapter 1: New Directions for State and Local Government
Chapter 2: Federalism and the States
Chapter 3: The Constitution
Chapter 4: Federalism
Chapter 5: Political Parties, Interest Groups, and Campaigns
Chapter 6: State Legislatures
Chapter 7: Governors
Chapter 8: Public Administration: Budgeting and Service Delivery
Chapter 9: The Judiciary
Chapter 10: The Structure of Local Government
Chapter 11: Local Leadership and Governance
Chapter 12: State-Local Relations
Chapter 13: State and Local Finance
Chapter 14: Economic Development
Chapter 15: Education Policy
Chapter 16: Criminal Justice
Chapter 17: Social Welfare and Health Care Policy
Chapter 18: Environmental Policy
Chapter 1:
New Directions for State and Local Government
Originally, states were assigned the same (except for the
two-letter state abbreviation) type of URL: http://www.state.ak.us/. The
suffix gov was reserved for the
federal government. Some states such as Alaska still use this web address.
Beginning in 2003, states were authorized to use gov and many states have switched to it. Alabama is an example: http://www.alabama.gov/. Other states have
opted to do something different, such as Florida's portal at http://www.myflorida.com/. The simplest
might be Montana's: http://www.mt.gov/.
A web site that offers a wealth of policy information about
the states, along with links to multistate organizations, national
organizations of state officials, and state-based think tanks is http://www.stateline.org/, established by
the Pew Center on the States.
Since 1933, the Council of State Governments has collected
and disseminated information about state institutions, policies, and trends.
Its web site is http://www.csg.org/.
The web site of Governing
magazine, http://www.governing.com/,
contains up-to-date, in-depth discussions of issues in states and localities.
At http://www.census.gov/,
the web site of the U.S. Bureau of the Census, you can find historical,
demographic data on states and localities.
A comprehensive web site that will take you to the official
web sites of states and local governments is http://www.firstgov.com/.
Chapter 2:
Federalism and the States
Costs of unfunded mandates are tracked by the NCSL in their "mandate monitor"
at
http://www.ncsl.org/standcomm/scbudg/manmon.htm.
Federalism decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court may be
reviewed at The Council of State Governments' web site at http://www.statesnews.org/. This site also includes other items
related to federalism.
For current information on relationships among the three
levels of government, see http://www.governing.com/.
http://www.census.gov/
has comparative data on the states and localities, particularly state and local
finances.
Information on tribal governments and politics may be
acquired at http://www.tribal-institute.org/
and http://www.narf.org/.
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Chapter 3:
State Constitutions
For full texts of state statutes and constitutions see
individual state web sites (for example, http://www.state.fl.us/).
State constitutions can also be accessed through Findlaw at http://www.findlaw.com/11stategov/indexconst.html,
http://www.law.cornell.edu/topics/state_statutes.html, or http://www.constitutions.org/.
The Alaska constitution draws heavily on the Model State
Constitution. It is located in the State of Alaska Documents Library at http://www.law.state.ak.us/.
For everything you want to know about Unicam in Nebraska, go
to http://www.unicam.state.ne.us/.
Live webcasts of Unicam may be viewed at http://www.unicam.ne.us/contact/index.htm.
Another helpful site is the Center for State Constitutional
Studies at
http://www.camlaw.rutgers.edu/statecon/.
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Chapter 4: Citizen Participation and Elections
The web site of the Federal
Election Commission, http://www.fec.gov/,
contains information about U.S. elections, including laws, voter turnout, and
results.
The League of Women Voters, a well-respected organization
that encourages informed and active participation of citizens in government,
maintains a web site at http://www.lwv.org/.
The organization established to stimulate interest in
political participation among America's youth can be found on the Internet at http://www.kidsvotingusa.org/.
A nonpartisan, nonadvocacy web site providing
up-to-the-minute news and analysis on election reform can be found at http://www.electionline.org/.
The organization found at http://www.americaspromise.org/ encourages volunteers to
create communities of promise in their home towns.
You can find just about anything you want to know about
ballot measures at http://www.iandrinstitute.org/
and http://www.ballot.org/.
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Chapter 5:
Political Parties, Interest Groups, and Campaigns
The major political parties have official web sites: http://www.democrats.org/ and http://www.rnc.org/.
At the state level, illustrative web sites are Hawaii's at http://www.hawaiidemocrats.org/ and
Virginia's at http://www.rpv.org/
An interesting state-level, third-party web site, http://www.cagreens.org/, is the site for the Green party of
California.
Common Cause has a
web site, http://www.commoncause.org/states, that tracks the
activities of its thirty-six state offices and the progress of campaign
finance reform.
Another group devoted to cleaning up elections is Public
Campaign. Their web site is http://www.publicampaign.org/. Another
group with a reform focus is the Center for Public Integrity at http://www.publicintegrity.org/.
To learn more about 527 groups, see http://www.opensecrets.org/527s/.
Different perspectives are reflected in the web sites of the
American Civil Liberties Union, http://www.aclu.org/,
and the Christian Coalition, http://www.cc.org/.
http://www.flchamber.com/
and http://www.ilchamber.org/ are the web sites for the chambers of
commerce for Florida and Illinois, respectively. Other state chambers use
similar URLs.
The Texas State Teachers' Association at http://www.tsta.org/ is an example of a state
school teachers organization. A different but related perspective is provided
by the Oregon PTA at http://www.oregonpta.org/.
Other examples of state-level interest groups include The
West Virginia Association of Realtors at http://www.wvrealtors.com/
and the Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association at http://www.azhha.org/.
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Chapter 6:
State Legislatures
To find out what’s up in state legislatures, visit the web
site of the National Conference of State Legislatures at http://www.ncsl.org/.
Most states have web sites that allow citizens to follow the
progress of legislation during the session. See, for example, the legislative
sites for Iowa and West Virginia at http://www.legis.state.ia.us/
and http://www.legis.state.wv.us/,
respectively.
The web site, http://www.vote-smart.org/,
tracks the performance of political leaders, including state legislators.
To learn about model state laws, see the National Conference
of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws at http://www.nccusl.org/.
An advocacy web site,
http://www.termlimits.org/,
provides up-to-date coverage of the term-limits issue.
A watchdog organization that scrutinizes and regularly
criticizes government, including state legislatures, maintains a web site at http://www.publicintegrity.org/.
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Chapter 7:
Governors
The governors have their own web sites in each state, which
can be located through the state home page or from links at http://www.nga.org/.
The NGA's web page is located at http://www.nga.org/. It features, among other
items, governors' biographies, the latest State of the State addresses, and a
subject index on various state and local issues, including welfare reform.
For information about western governors, see http://www.westgov.org/.
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Chapter 8:
Public Administration: Budgeting and Service Delivery
All major municipalities and states have web pages. Many
provide links to jobs, New Public Management initiatives, service-provision
information, and other data. Innovative, award-winning web sites are
Indianapolis's "Electronic City Hall" at http://www.indygov.org/,
Service Arizona at http://www.servicearizona.ihost.com/,
NC@YourService at http://www.ncgov.com/,
AccessWashington at http://www.access.wa.gov/,
and Delaware at http://www.delaware.gov/.
An Internet-based clearinghouse on GIS is maintained by the
Center for Technology in Government at http://www.ctg.albany.edu/gisny.html. Another interesting site on
technology and government is located at http://www.govtech.net/.
An informative public-employee union web site is AFSCME's at
http://www.afscme.org/.
For a step-by-step illustration of a state budget process,
see http://www.state.ny.us/dob/citizen/process/process.html.
You can play a
budget simulation for New York City at http://www.gothamgazette.com/budgetgame/budgetgame.html.
To view streaming videos of public meetings in Indiana,
visit http://www.stream.hoosier.net/cats.
Information on the Government Performance Project is found
at http://www.governing.com/.
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Chapter 9:
The Judiciary
The National Center for State Courts (NCSC) maintains a list
of courts and their web addresses. NCSC's web site at http://www.ncsconline.org/ is a rich
source of information on the courts, including state court decisions.
Interesting state sites include the following: California at
http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/,
Florida at http://www.flcourts.org/, and
Alaska at http://www.state.ak.us/courts/.
The American Bar Association's web site at http://www.abanet.org/ provides an analysis
of current controversial cases and other legal information.
The Law Forum Legal Resources site at http://www.lawforum.net/ has links
to all on-line state and local courts.
For a detailed examination of all states' judicial selection
systems, see http://www.ajs.org/selection/sel_stateselect.asp.
To watch live
performances of Indiana's court proceedings, see http://www.in.gov/judiciary/webcast.
The Iowa Supreme Court may be viewed at http://www.governmentvideo.com/2001/0901/presentation_0901.shtml.
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Chapter 10:
The Structure of Local Government
Most of the five types of government are represented by
national associations, which have web sites: http://www.naco.org/ (National Association of Counties); http://www.nlc.org/ (National League of Cities); http://www.natat.org/
(National Association of Towns and Townships); http://www.nsba.org/
(for school districts, the relevant web site is that of the National School
Boards Association).
To explore a specific school district, see http://www.philsch.k12.pa.us/ (the website of the City of Philadelphia school district).
Special districts, by virtue of their specialized nature,
tend to have function-specific national organizations. For example, the
National Association of Conservation Districts can be found at http://www.nacdnet.org/. A fifteen-county
district, the Colorado River Water Conservation District, whose web site can be
found at http://www.crwcd.gov/, is an
example of an individual special district. The web site of one of the most
famous special districts, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, is http://www.panynj.gov/.
Over time, cities and counties have found that maintaining
web sites is a good way to connect with the public. See the web site for
consolidated Miami-Dade County at http://www.miamidade.gov/.
The web site for the city of Los Angeles can be found at http://www.ci.la.ca.us/; the web site for
the county can be found at http://www.lacounty.info/.
The web site for the largest county in Michigan is http://www.waynecounty.com/.
You can find information about the Big Apple at http://www.nyc.gov/; for the city of New Orleans
at http://www.cityofno.com/. The web
sites for the cities of Houston and Boston are http://www.houstontx.gov/ and http://www.cityofboston.gov/,
respectively.
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Chapter 11:
Local Leadership and Governance
The association of mayors of cities with populations of
30,000, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, has a web site at http://www.usmayors.org/.
Mayors in a single state frequently belong to a statewide
organization such as http://www.njmayornet.com/
in New Jersey.
Specialized constituency groups often have their own
organizations and web sites, as does the National Conference of Black Mayors at
http://www.ncbm.org/.
The web site for the Center for American Women and Politics
at Rutgers University, http://www.cawp.rutgers.edu/,
contains a wealth of data on women and politics.
Information about the city and county management profession
can be found at the International City/County Management Association's web site:
http://www.icma.org/.
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Chapter 12:
State-Local Relations
The National
Association of Regional Councils maintains a web site at http://www.narc.org/. It shows the differences
and similarities of regional councils across the country.
The Association of
Bay Area Governments' award-winning site can be found at http://www.abag.ca.gov/.
The web site for the regional planning agency that deals
with 184 cities and six counties in Southern California is http://www.scag.ca.gov/.
For information on the activities of a state-level ACIR, see
the Virginia ACIR at http://www.acir.state.va.us/.
Utah replaced its ACIR with the Utah Intergovernmental Roundtable
at http://www.cppa.utah.edu/uir/.
The Urban
Institute's site for research on economic and social policy can be found
at http://www.urban.org/. It is a useful
source of information on states and localities.
The Sierra Club
presents its case against urban sprawl at http://www.sierraclub.org/sprawl.
To learn more about new urbanism, see http://www.cnu.org/,
the web site for the Congress of the New Urbanism.
Texas Rural Partners
Inc., a rural development council, has a web site at http://www.texasruralpartners.org/. Other states with rural development councils
maintain web sites also.
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Chapter 13:
State and Local Finance
The National Conference of State Legislatures' Principles of
a High Quality Tax System are available for viewing at http://www.ncsl.org/.
To check on the fiscal status of New York City, see its Tax
Page at http://www.ibo.nyc.ny.us/.
One of the best individual sites on state tax and budget
information is that of the Texas State Comptroller at http://www.window.state.tx.us/.
For current reports in developments, trends, and policy
changes in state government finances, see the web site of the Center for the
Study of the States at SUNY-Albany, http://stateandlocalgateway.rockinst.org/.
Comparative state and local revenue, tax, and expenditure
data may be found at the U.S. Census Bureau's web site (http://www.census.gov/) and at the Tax
Foundation's web site (http://www.taxfoundation.org/).
See http://www.taxsites.com/
for general tax resources and official state tax sites.
Chapter 14:
Economic Development
The
web site for the National Association of State Development Agencies at http://www.nasda.com/ provides up-to-date information on
state activities and links to state agencies.
Two economic
development organizations, one with a national focus, the other with an
international emphasis, maintain useful websites. These are the
Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED) at http://www.cfed.org/
and the International Economic Development Council at http://www.iedconline.org/.
All states have a
web presence in economic development, typically through a state agency. The comprehensive
web site of Arizona's Department of Commerce can be found at http://www.azcommerce.com/.
Explore a more targeted approach to economic development at http://www.idahoworks.com/, which is a part of Idaho's
Department of Commerce web site.
Other examples of
states with less traditional economic development web sites are the
state of Kentucky's new economy web site at http://www.one-ky.com/
and Enterprise Florida at http://www.eflorida.com/.
A statewide
organization devoted to local economic development is the California
Association for Local Economic Development, http://www.caled.org/.
http://www.newyorkbiz.com/
is the web site for the New York City Economic Development Corporation.
For economic development from a private sector perspective,
check out the web site of Site Selection magazine at http://www.siteselection.com/. It
tracks new business activity around the nation.
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Chapter 15:
Education Policy
For the National Report Card on state school systems, see http://www.edweek.org/. This site may also be
used to access informative articles on school reform in Education Week.
School finance data are available from the National Center
for Education Statistics at http://www.nces.ed.gov/
and on the U.S. Department of Education's web site at http://www.ed.gov/.
State education agencies may be explored at http://www.csso.org/, home for the Council of
Chief State School Officers.
One of the best places to go for education-policy
information and trends is the web site of the Education Commission of the
States at http://www.ecs.org/.
Teacher-salary data and education-policy analysis may be
found on the American Federation of Teachers' web site at http://www.aft.org/ and at http://www.nea.org/, the web site of the National
Education Association.
Check out the Governance and Finance Institute web site for
information on policy research, including charter schools, at http://www.ed.gov/offices/OERI/GFI/index.html.
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Chapter 16:
Criminal Justice
Hundreds of law enforcement and corrections-related sites
appear on the Web. A few of the more interesting include the Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI) homepage at http://www.fbi.gov/
and the Police Guide at http://www.policeguide.com/.
For community policing, see the Office of Community Oriented
Policing (COPS) at http://www.usdoj.gov/cops.
Links to most major criminal justice policy issues are
available at http://www.corrections.com/.
http://www.sentencingproject.org/
is a nonprofit organization that promotes alternatives to prison.
For corrections and sentencing data, and other valuable
information, see http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/
and http://www.ncjrs.org/. Another general source is the web
address of the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data at http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/NACJD.
The Death Penalty Information Center (http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/)
provides a wealth of statistics and reports on capital punishment.
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Chapter 17:
Social Welfare and Health Care Policy
The Joint Center for Poverty Research focuses on the causes
of poverty and the effectiveness of policies aimed at reducing it. Their web
site is located at http://www.jcpr.org/.
For information on federal and state health care, see the
Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/.
The Administration for Children and Families (ACF), within
the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), is responsible for
federal programs that promote economic and social wellbeing. Information about
their programs can be obtained from their web site at http://www.acf.hhs.gov/.
Families USA is a nonprofit organization that works at the
national, state, and local levels to achieve high-quality, affordable health
care and long-term care for all Americans. Their web site, http://www.familiesusa.org/, serves as a
clearinghouse for information about the health care system.
For information on
children's issues, see the Children's Defense Fund at http://www.childrensdefense.org/.
For general information and links on welfare programs and
initiatives, see http://www.welfareinfo.org/.
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Chapter 18:
Environmental Policy
The official web site of the Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) is http://www.epa.gov/. It is packed
with information about the EPA's programs and initiatives.
The official web site of the Department of the Interior is http://www.doi.gov/. It contains a wealth of information about the various activities
of the agency.
All states have agencies devoted to environmental protection
and natural resource conservation. See, for example, Oregon at http://www.deq.state.or.us/ and Ohio
at http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/.
A good place to track environmental protection policies,
laws, and regulations is at http://enviro2.blr.com/.
This site is maintained by Business and Legal Reports, a firm that advertises
itself as "making state environmental compliance easier."
For more information about environmental issues, contact the
Sierra Club at http://www.sierraclub.org/,
the National Wildlife Federation at http://www.nwf.org/,
the Nature Conservancy at http://www.nature.org/,
and the Grassroots Recycling Network at http://www.grrn.org/.
To learn about the impact of pollution on the public,
explore the web site of the Environmental Justice Foundation at http://www.ejfoundation.org/.
"No Compromise in Defense of Mother Earth" is the organizing
principle of Earth First!, a group whose online journal is at http://www.earthfirstjournal.org/.
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