PPA 745 Intergovernmental Relations Professor Scott W. Allard

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PPA 745 Intergovernmental RelationsProfessor
Scott W. Allard
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Intergovernmental Relations

• An important body of activities or interactions
  occurring between governmental units of all types
  and levels within the federal system.
• -William Anderson

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Course Objectives

• Understand the structure and function of the
  American federal system
• Explore range of intergovernmental interactions
• Understand and explain policy variation across
  time and place
• Research a policy topic or issue you are
  particularly interested in and relate it to
  course concepts

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Assignments and Grades

• Participation discussion and quizzes
• Short midterm paper that is due on March 4th
  
• Final research paper due on April 29th

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Questions Posed by this Course

• How do different levels of government struggle
  for greater control, discretion, and autonomy?
• How fluid are power, responsibility,
  accountability in a decentralized system?
• When do the interests of different levels of
  government conflict?
• How important are non-political constraints on
  decision-making?
• What is the relationship between state/local
  governmental capacity and IGRs?
• How can we explain differences and/or
  similarities in policy outcomes across different
  states and localities?

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Why Do We Care?

• Political environment is a major constraint on
  and source of uncertainty for public managers
• You can use the tools of government to achieve
  your organizational goals/mission
• Anticipate how variations in policy will affect
  your interests, goals, and mission

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Readings for Next Time

• Assigned readings for today
• Federalist Papers 10 and 51
• Gray, Chapter 2
• Brooks article
• Nice, Chapter 1
• Salamon, Chapter 1
• Allard article