Foundations for Policy Innovations: Exploring Local Policy Diffusion

This dissertation examines various internal factors within a county and external factors outside the county that influence policy adoption. Particular attention is given to external factors, or the possible ways that counties respond to the policies of their neighbors. This study focuses on the multiple external processes involved that contribute to policy adoption. These include policy diffusion, lagged diffusion, and conditional diffusion. These processes are used to test hypotheses that will better explain how counties react to their neighbors' policy adoptions. Unlike most studies that examine only one process, multiple processes are tested to determine if they vary across different policies. This study explores Tax Incremental Financing districts, smoking bans, and the sales tax rates of counties in the state of Missouri. Missouri is politically, economically, and demographically similar to other states, therefore making it a sufficient case for this study. I find that different processes are involved in policy adoption, and that counties mainly react to one another through economic competition. I also find that certain county-level characteristics influence a county's likelihood of adopting policies. These findings will enable scholars to better determine the multiple processes involved in county policy adoption.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy

Level thesis:degree_level

Campus Only Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Political Science

Year

2012

Author dc:creator

• Mitchell, Joshua L.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Grant, Tobin

• County economic competition
• County policy adoption
• County policy diffusion
• local policy diffusion
• Missouri policy diffusion
• Policy diffusion

Repository record dc:identifier

https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/dissertations/630

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:opensiuc.lib.siu.edu:dissertations-1631