Reorganization of State Governments: 1900-1985

Abstract

This article focuses on the reasons state executive branches are reorganized. The existing literature has diverse disciplinary sources, including political science, public administration, sociology, and business administration. On balance, the literature suggests that reorganization events are grounded in the short-term struggle for political access and symbolic rewards. The model developed here incorporates this dominant view but broadens its connections to processes for agenda setting, the institutional environment, and long-wave changes in management rhetoric and economic conditions. The research uses event history statistical methods to test hypotheses regarding repeated reorganizations in the forty-eight continental American state governments between 1900 and 1985. The focus is on the period of time, or duration, that passes before a comprehensive reorganization takes place. The major finding is that reorganizations are more likely to occur during long-wave economic declines, when institutional conditions encourage access to the governmental decision agenda and when long-wave declines and rationalistic rhetoric coincide with institutions that encourage access to the governmental agenda. Implications for research and the latest wave of governmental reform are also discussed.

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