The mission of
State Politics and Policy Quarterly
is to stimulate research on state politics and policy and to
provide an institutional structure to develop a progressive and
coherent research agenda in the field.
The
U.S. states provide, arguably, a most advantageous venue in
which to test general propositions about political behavior and
policy. Indeed, one would be hard-pressed to design a better
system of polities for testing hypotheses about politics.
The states represent 50 units of
analysis with broadly similar political structures, cultures,
and populations, but with significant and limited variation
across a range of social, policy, and institutional
characteristics that are directly relevant to many theories of
politics.
Unlike
the examination of a single unit of government, such as the U.S.
federal government, there is sufficient variation in these
characteristics for scholars to explore cause and effect
relationships in useful and valid ways. Unlike the comparison of
different countries or local governments, there is not so much
of this variation as to overwhelm our ability to identify such
relationships as might exist. From a comparative perspective,
the U.S. states represent a natural laboratory for testing
hypotheses derived from theories of American-style institutions.
Further, the accessibility of state government officials makes
quite feasible many research strategies that would be
unthinkable in the study of national level officials and
institutions.
Beyond
these clear advantages to empirical political analysis, the
states are of central and increasing importance in the U.S.
political system. The past thirty years have seen an
unprecedented resurgence of the states in political power,
policy responsibility, and institutional capacity.
The states have been critical to politics
and policy in the U.S. from the beginning of the republic.
Indeed, the very name of our nation indicates the pivotal place
of the states in governing.
Not
surprisingly, the intrinsic importance and unique methodological
advantages of the states have long attracted political
scientists. Some of the earliest seminal studies in the
discipline have used the states as venues to develop and test
general propositions about politics.
State Politics and Policy Quarterly
endeavors to serve its field of study much
like other journals of record exist for legislative studies,
political methodology, comparative politics, and political
psychology.
Its founder believed that in an age of
increasing academic specialization, the lack of an outlet for
state politics scholars caused the field to be less coherent,
less attractive to younger scholars and less innovative and
progressive than it could be. It is the goal of
State Politics and Policy Quarterly
to fill these needs and provide a leadership role in developing,
integrating and sustaining the study of politics in the U.S.
states in the 21st Century.
