Federalism, Urban

Common Core: How Much Do People Know About Its Real Impact?. Paul E. Peterson. 2015. August 13, 2015.

Earlier this week, my colleagues and I reported, as part of the 2015 Education Next survey of public opinion, that the level of support for the Common Core had slipped over the past two years from about two thirds to about half of the public. Yet opponents still number only about a third of the public, with the rest offering no opinion one way or the other.

Public Supports Testing, Opposes Opt-Out, Opposes Federal Intervention. Paul E. Peterson, Martin R. West. 2015. July 28, 2015.

Testing and accountability have become a focal point of the congressional debate over the new federal education bill designed to replace No Child Left Behind (NCLB), originally scheduled to expire in 2007. The Senate and the House have each passed a bill revising the law, but disagreement persists on a key testing provision.

A Blue State Bailout in Disguise: Our new study shows that under the Obama jobs bill, debt-ridden states will get another big handout. Paul Peterson, Daniel Nadler. The Wall Street Journal. September 16, 2011.

Last Thursday, the president urged Congress to pony up roughly $200 billion in taxpayer money to "provide more jobs for teachers [and] more jobs for construction workers" and more money to carry out other state and local activities. He urges Congress to spend this money even after handing out hundreds of billions of dollars for similar purposes as part of the 2009 stimulus package, as well as a score and more billion dollars again in 2010.

The Global Debt Crisis: Haunting U.S. and European Federalism. Paul Peterson, Daniel Nadler. Brookings Institution Press, 240 pages. 2014.

Stockton, California, recently became the largest American city in history to declare bankruptcy, having incurred a debt as high as $1 billion. Since 2010, seven U.S. cities, towns, or counties have filed for bankruptcy, while many more teeter on the brink of insolvency. Not since the Great Depression has America witnessed such grand-scale municipal bankruptcies. The Global Debt Crisis looks at this growing crisis and its implications for governance and federalism, both domestically and internationally.

The New Politics of Federalism. Paul PetersonIn Scott Greer, Ed.. Territory, Democracy and Justice: Regionalism and Federalism in Western Democracies. Macmillan Ltd, New York, NY. 2006.
Consolidate Districts, Not Schools. Paul Peterson. Reforming Education in Arkansas, Recommendations from the Koret Task Force. Hoover Institution Press, Stanford, California. 2005.
The New Politics of Federalism. Paul Peterson. Spectrum, 78(2), 5-7. 2005.
The Changing Politics of Federalism. Paul PetersonIn Craig Parson and Al Roberts, Eds.. Evolving Federalisms: The intergovernmental balance of power in America and Europe. The Maxwell School of Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York, 25-42. 2003.
The Interests of the Limited City. Paul PetersonIn Dennis R. Judd and Paul Kantor, Eds.. The Politics of Urban America - A reader. Longman. 2001.
The American Mayor: Elections and Institutions. Paul Peterson. Parliamentary Affairs, 54(4). 2000.
Devolution's Price. Paul Peterson. Yale Law & Policy Review/Yale Journal on Regulation. Symposium: Constructing a New Federalism, 111-121. 1996.
The Price of Federalism. Paul Peterson. Brookings Institution Press, 264 pages. 1995.

What is the price of federalism? Does it result in governmental interconnections that are too complex? Does it create overlapping responsibilities? Does it perpetuate social inequalities? Does it stifle economic growth? The book addresses these questions by developing two theories—functional and legislative—of the workings of the American federal system.

Urban Policies. Paul PetersonIn Donald C. Bacon, Roger H. Davidson, and Morton Keller, Eds.. The Encyclopedia of the United States Congress. New York: Simon and Schuster. 1995.
Who Should Do What? Divided Responsibility in the Federal System. Paul Peterson. Brookings Review, 12(3), 6-11. 1995.
The President, the Congress and the Making of Foreign Policy. Paul Peterson. Oklahoma University Press. 1994.

Identifies the defining role of the president, the secondary role of Congress, in the making of foreign policy.