Governing States and Localities: The Essentials

Kevin B. Smith · Alan Greenblatt

Dec 2013 · CQ Press

About this ebook

In this Essentials Edition of Governing States and Localities, authors Kevin Smith and Alan Greenblatt retain the hallmarks of their bestselling introductory text by blending the latest scholarship with engaging journalistic writing, crisp storytelling, and class-tested pedagogy. Based on market feedback, the authors distilled core topics and cut out policy coverage some instructors do not have time to cover, but kept the ever-important finance chapter and a beautiful full-color interior design. This value-priced, ten-chapter text utilizes the comparative approach to ensure that students walk away from the course understanding how and why states and localities are both similar and different in institutional structure, culture, history, geography, economy, and demographics

About the author

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.