Means, Motives, and Opportunities
How Executives and Interest Groups Set Public Policy

Illuminates how governors, motivated by political issues, shape budgets according to the opportunities interest groups provide them.

Christian Breunig (Author), Chris Koski (Author)

9781009428606, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 8 February 2024

300 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.8 cm, 0.45 kg

'Recommended.' D. Schultz, CHOICE

Means, Motives, and Opportunities illuminates how states spend public money through the lens of governmental structure, executive power, and interest group competition. Christian Breunig and Chris Koski argue that policymaking is a function of not only policymakers' means (powers), but of their motives (issues) and opportunities (interest group competition) for change. Using over twenty-five years of data across all fifty US states, four in-depth case studies, and multiple examples of budget battles, the book describes a budget-making environment in which governors must balance the preferences of interest groups with their own, all while attempting to build a budget that roughly balances. While governors are uniquely powerful, the range of changes they can make is largely impacted by interest group competition. By showing how means, motives, and opportunities matter, the book shows how spending decisions at the state level influence nearly every aspect of American life.

List of illustrations
List of tables
Acknowledgements
Part I. Setting Public Policy: 1. Explaining One Million Policy Stories
2. Meeting at the Margins: Interests and Governors in Public Budgeting
Part II. Motives, Opportunities, and Means of Policy Change: 3. Motives: Issues of the Moment(s)
4. Opportunities: Interest Groups and their Budgetary Issues
5. Means: How Governors Shape Budgetary Outcomes
6. How Interests and Executives Set Public Policy in Four States with Nat Rubin
Part III. Public Policy and Budgeting in the American States: 7. Conclusion: Public Government of Public Monies
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Constitution: government & the state [JPHC]