The Study of Executive Policy Making in the US States

Scholarly attention on executive policy making has largely focused on presidents and the federal bureaucracy. Yet, state policy making is just as important given its immediate influence on our daily lives. This article provides a guide to studying this area for interested scholars. First, I make the case for why state executive policy making is important and its advantages over the federal level. Second, I outline four approaches to researching this area: (1) asking state-specific questions, (2) using the states to strictly test federal-level theories, (3) leveraging state-level data to test underlying mechanisms of theories developed for the federal level, and (4) examining intergovernmental interactions. I conclude by highlighting the available resources for such research, while calling attention to areas needing improvement.