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Divided government, delegation, and civil service reform

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2020

Elliott Ash ,
Massimo Morelli  and
Matia Vannoni Open the ORCID record for Matia Vannoni [Opens in a new window]
Elliott Ash
Affiliation:
ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
Massimo Morelli
Affiliation:
DONDENA, IGIER and CEPR, Bocconi University, Milan, Italy
Matia Vannoni*
Affiliation:
King's College London, London, UK
*
*Corresponding author. Email: matia.vannoni@kcl.ac.uk
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Abstract

This paper sheds new light on the drivers of civil service reform in US states. We first demonstrate theoretically that divided government is a key trigger of civil service reform, providing nuanced predictions for specific configurations of divided government. We then show empirical evidence for these predictions using data from the second half of the 20th century: states tended to introduce these reforms under divided government, and in particular when legislative chambers (rather than legislature and governor) were divided.

Keywords

American politics

Information

Type
Original Article
Information
Political Science Research and Methods , Volume 10 , Issue 1 , January 2022 , pp. 82 - 96
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the European Political Science Association

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