Out of many, one? U.S. sub-national political-economies in the post-welfare reform era

Abstract

AbstractDespite increased research on social policy variation among U.S. states, few have examined U.S. state-level political-economies in the wake of welfare reform. This is problematic given the ability of state-level political-economies to solidify patterns of stratification. I address this by analyzing four dimensions of U.S. state-level political-economies in the welfare reform era: labor policy, family/social policy, tax policy, and state imposed fiscal constraint. From this analysis I delineate five state-level political-economic types: (1) progressive; (2) contested progressive; (3) boilerplate; (4) frontier conservative; and (5) Southern conservative. Four determinants of type membership are also evaluated: Democratic Party control, unionization, racial fractionalization and income per capita. While my results demonstrate these as meaningful determinants, patterns of association vary by type, thus suggesting a revision to the assumed progressive/conservative continuum of U.S. social policy and political-economies. I conclude by elaborating how my analysis expands our understanding of U.S., and cross-national, political-economies.