The Centralizing Effects of Austerity on the Intergovernmental System

Abstract

Even though the attractiveness of devolving public decision making and policy implementation to state and local governments is widely acknowledged, changes are occurring in the U.S. system of intergovernmental relations that are eroding local autonomy and centralizing authority. This is not a new observation. In recent years, observers of intergovernmental relations have noted that the discretionary portion of local government budgets has been declining in proportion to the growing presence of federal funding. But now the processes of erosion of state and local autonomy and centralization of authority appear to be accelerating as resource scarcity and the structure of federal grants, in combination, are causing subtle, yet fundamental, changes in the scope and role of state and local governments.'