Special Issue on “Economic
Polarization and Challenges to Subnational Governments“
Long before the onset of the Great Recession, subnational
governments both within and outside of the United Sates were continuously being
confronted with problematic issues and challenges that seemed to defy any
plausible remedy. One of these
challenges was how to reasonably and successfully address the increasing
economic polarization of the residents of various subnational jurisdictions,
along with the possible concomitant loss of the middle class. Polarization has been linked to higher crime
rates, issues of increased hunger (especially among school children), racial
and ethnic unrest, distrust of authority, increases in political alienation and
cynicism, decreases in political efficacy, and the loss of businesses that
mostly serve middle class residents. At the same time, subnational governments have
had to deal with the loss of substantial amounts of traditional kinds of
revenue that are vitally needed to address these problems and resultant issues. The severity and magnitude of these complex
and interrelated challenges points to the need for scholarly study. Plausible research questions include the
following:
·
From a governance perspective, what exactly does
the term economic polarization mean?
Does this mean that there is both a decline of a “middle class” and a great divide between the lower and
upper income classes? What are the
different manifestations of this phenomenon such as the degree of loss of the
middle class as well as economic polarization?
What stage or level of economic polarization can result in policy or
governance problems for subnational governments?
·
To what extent do taxing and spending policies
at subnational levels redistribute burdens and benefits?
·
What are the specific ways/policy areas that
polarization is evident (i.e., education, housing, stagnant wages, etc.)?
·
Has there been a change in the level of middle
class loss or economic polarization? If so, when did these changes begin, are
they increasing, or is it stable or declining? What are the best techniques to
document or monitor these changes?
·
What factors contribute to increased economic
polarization--actions by international, national, or subnational governments?
·
What are the implications of middle class loss
and/ or economic polarization for subnational governance-i.e. what problems has
this caused for subnational governments?
·
What actions have or could subnational
governments take to reduce the loss of the middle class and economic
polarization as well reduce the impact on their citizens?
·
Why hasn’t societal and economic information
shown a capacity to scale effectively across jurisdictional, operational, and
organizational boundaries? Are we missing major policies and monitoring
procedures that would identify this process more effectively, leading to more
timely policy action?
Given the timeliness and importance of this subject matter
and issue, the decision was made in early 2015 to dedicate the next Special
Issue of State and Local Government
Review to the topic of “Economic Polarization and Challenges to Subnational
Governments.” The call for papers went
out in mid-February. By April 1, we had not
received a sufficient number of quality proposals from which to choose. Therefore, it was decided to extend the
submission deadline until May 1. This
resulted in a substantial number of additional proposals being submitted and
increased the pool to 22 proposals. In
fact, we had more good proposals to choose from than we had space to include
them in a 72-page issue. Therefore, we
selected what we thought were the five best proposals and invited the author(s)
to develop a draft for initial review.
We also thought so highly of two other proposals that we invited the
authors to develop manuscripts for consideration as general interest articles
in SLGR. The subject matter of the five
commissioned papers for the special symposium includes the following: the
impact of the political economy on inequality-producing policies; progressive
responses to income polarization; redistribution as a part of mayoral policy
agendas; the geography of urban poverty; and the impact on metropolitan
polarization on local government reorganization.
The Special Issue will be published as the last issue of 2015
(Volume 47, Issue Number 4).
Young
Scholar Outreach Program
To date, the Young
Scholar Outreach Program, that is designed to assist doctoral students
seeking job placements and new faculty with a position at the instructor,
assistant professor, or beginning associate professor level to get published in
academia, is off to an excellent start.
Around twenty people have already contacted Dr. Scicchitano seeking
guidance since the Program was launched in the Spring of 2014, and three
manuscripts originating from the Program have either been published or awaiting
publication in SLGR. They are as follows:
- “Political
Trust in the American States” by Aaron
C. Weinschenk and David J. Helpap (March 2015, Vol. 47, No. 1 Issue)
- “Morality Politics and Municipal LGBT
Policy Adoption: A Rare Event Analysis” (March 2015, Vol. 47, No. 1 Issue)
- “Government
by Advice: Public Participation and Policymaking through Advisory Ballot
Measures” by Todd Ely (June 2015, Vol.47, No. 2 Issue)
Persons having
questions or wanting to participate in the program are encouraged to send an
email to SLGR Editor Michael
Scicchitano at mscicc@ufl.edu or call him at (352) 846-2874.
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