Chapter Summary

Chapter 8 provides a detailed discussion of the role of governors and the variation in gubernatorial powers among states. Governors serve important political and legislative roles—acting as chief legislators, party chiefs, and chief spokespeople for their states. They must be able to interact with a variety of administrative agencies at multiple levels of government and to promote and economic development within their states. This reflects the expansion of formal and informal gubernatorial powers and responsibilities. Budgetary, appointment, and veto powers also represent formal mechanisms available to them to manage particular legislative agendas.

State- and local-level public bureaucracies are critical in the delivery of essential public goods and services. To operate effectively, these public bureaucracies have a specific set of organizational characteristics. Hierarchy, division of labor, formal rules, professionalism, and the maintenance of files and records exist within public bureaucracies to ensure impartiality in the delivery of public goods. Despite calls for reforming bureaucracies to operate more like private businesses, they operate quite efficiently and hold high standards of professionalism and ethical behavior (contrary to popular opinion). Furthermore, although the size and scope of bureaucracies vary across states, no state could operate effectively without one.

Learning Objectives

After reading this chapter, you should understand:

• how the power of governors has changed over the last one hundred years
• the many different roles of governors
• how governors control state agencies
• how formal and informal powers differ
• what bureaucracy is and what organization characteristics are associated with it
• why bureaucracies vary in size and effectiveness across states
• how the spoils system and the merit system differ
• the advantages and disadvantages of the merit system