Kim, Yunji and Mildred Warner 2018. “Shrinking Local Autonomy: Corporate Coalitions and the Subnational State,” Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, 11(3): 427-441. DOI: 10.1093/cjres/rsy020
Using focus groups and government finance data, we explore three areas of US state rescaling at the subnational level: revenue tools, expenditure responsibilities and policy authority. Expenditure responsibilities, especially social welfare, have been devolved to the subnational level, while local revenue tools and policy authority are preempted. This decoupling of responsibility and power is cracking the foundations of fiscal federalism. At the behest of corporate-legislative coalitions, subnational state governments are shrinking local capacity and authority to govern. This is not state shrinkage; it is a fundamental reshaping of the subnational state to the detriment of democracy and the social contract.
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Subject: Free Trade and Governance