Reorganization of State Governments: 1900–1985

This article focuses on the reasons state executive branches are reorganized. The existing literature has diverse disciplinary sources, including political science, public administration, sociology, and business administration. On balance, the literature suggests that reorganization events are grounded in the shortterm struggle for political access and symbolic rewards. The model developed here incorporates this dominant view but broadens its connections to processes for agenda setting, the institutional environment, and long-wave changes in management rhetoric and economic conditions. The research uses event history statistical methods to test hypotheses regarding repeated reorganizations in the forty-eight continental American state governments between 1900 and 1985. The focus is on the period of time, or duration, that passes before a comprehensive reorganization takes place. The major finding is that reorganizations are more likely to occur during long-wave economic declines, when institutional conditions encourage access to the governmental decision agenda and when long-wave declines and rationalistic rhetoric coincide with institutions that encourage access to the governmental agenda. Implications for research and the latest wave of governmental reform are also discussed. State government executive branch reorganization is a persistent, visible, and poorly understood process. The literature does not provide answers to fundamental questions: Why do reorganizations occur? Why are certain forms adopted? What difference does it make for efficiency or policy? These questions remain unanswered even though the general literature on executive branch reorganizations is large and dates from the turn of this century. This article focuses on one aspect of the first question: Why are state executive branches reorganized? The dominant view of reorganizations is that they are grounded in the short-term struggle for political access and I would like to acknowledge the help of Hal Rainey, Fran Berry, Gloria Grizzle, and the anonymous reviewers. Responsibility for the final product is mine. J-PART, 6(1996): 1:25-47 25/Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory This content downloaded from 157.55.39.144 on Wed, 07 Sep 2016 05:53:07 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Reorganization of State Governments symbolic rewards and that they are largely unpredictable. Largescale reorganization events occur in American states roughly every twenty-five years, with only a 3 percent likelihood of occurrence in any single year. The infrequency of these events suggests that a model of their causes must include a long-term time dimension. The model developed here incorporates the dominant view but broadens its connections to processes for agenda setting, the institutional environment, and long-wave changes in management rhetoric and economic conditions. The research uses event history statistical methods to test hypotheses regarding repeated reorganizations in the forty-eight continental American state governments between 1900 and 1985. The focus is on the period of time, or duration, that passes before a comprehensive reorganization takes place.