The trusted and proven Governing States and Localities guides you through the contentious environment of state and local politics and focuses on the role that economic and budget pressures play on issues facing state and local governments. With their engaging journalistic writing and crisp storytelling, Kevin B. Smith and Alan Greenblatt employ a comparative approach to explain how and why states and localities are both similar and different. The Seventh Edition is thoroughly updated to account for such major developments as state vs. federal conflicts over immigration reform, school shootings, and gun control; the impact of the Donald Trump presidency on intergovernmental relations and issues of central interest to states and localities; and the lingering effects of the Great Recession.

Author Biography

Kevin B. Smith is professor and chair of the political science department at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and has been studying and teaching state politics and policy for more than twenty years. He has authored or co-authored nine books and dozens of scholarly articles, and is a former associate editor of State Politics & Policy Quarterly. Prior to becoming an academic he covered state and local politics as a newspaper reporter. Alan Greenblatt, a reporter at NPR, has been writing about politics and government in Washington and the states for more than a decade. He won the National Press Club's Sandy Hume award for political journalism while reporting for Congressional Quarterly. During his years at Governing magazine, he covered issues of concern to state and local governments, including budgets, taxes, and higher education. Along the way, he has written about politics and culture for numerous other publications, including the Washington Post and the San Francisco Chronicle.