This chapter reviews the dominant theories of government innovation in the public policy
literature. It shows that these theories borrow heavily from others developed to explain …

Policy Points Changes in US state policies since the 1970s, particularly after 2010, have
played an important role in the stagnation and recent decline in US life expectancy. Some …

As national political fights are waged at the state level, democracy itself pays the price Over
the past generation, the Democratic and Republican parties have each become nationally …

The scholarship on policy diffusion in political science and public administration is
extensive. This article provides an introduction to that literature for scholars, students, and …

Political scientists often characterize state and local governments as marginal and highly
constrained in policymaking. However, I suggest that in recent decades state governments …

Research on how policies diffuse throughout the American federal system is robust and vast,
but there has yet to be a systematic accounting for its results. Using a systematic review and …

The transmission of ideas, information, and resources forms the core of many issues studied
in political science, including collective action, cooperation, and development. While these …

Threat theory argues that states toughen criminal laws to repress the competitive power of
large minority groups. Yet, research on threat suffers from a poor understanding of why …

This article explores the diffusion of criminal justice policy in the American states. Drawing
on policy design theory, I code newspaper coverage of 44 criminal justice policies adopted …

Scholars have suggested that interest groups affect the diffusion of innovations across states
by creating a network of information between the states that aids in the spread of policy …