This Doctoral Dissertation Research project looks at American state government agenda setting comparatively. It considers how political issues get on state government agendas, and, in particular, why gubernatorial, legislative, and judicial political agendas vary across and within states. More specifically, this dissertation examines institutional agenda space allocated to redistributive social and economic policies across varying preference distributions, institutional rules, design and political context, and political resources. Redistributive policies are defined as social and economic policies that involve advantaged and disadvantaged groups (i.e., rich versus poor; majority versus minority). The goal of this project is to provide an integrated model of agenda setting that highlights the primary forces promoting or inhibiting redistributive agendas in the states. The research design in this study collects and analyzes data from all fifty states, looking at the years 1994-1996. Ordinary least squares and maximum likelihood estimation will be employed to systematically test hypotheses about institutional agenda setting and economic and social redistribution in the American states. The data will consist of governor state of the state addresses, state legislature bill introductions, and state supreme court case dockets. The results from this dissertation will provide a comprehensive view of the politics of agenda setting practices within and across the states.
