ABSTRACT

Although state executive branch reorganization has been surrounded by controversy and expense for more than sixty years and has been occurring at an unprecedented rate during the last thirteen, much of our knowledge of it has been anecdotal, fragmentary, conceptually imprecise, and untested, asserts Dr. Garnett. His book contributes conceptual and empirical order to the study of reorganization by analyzing competing and complementary models, evaluating research methodologies, stating hypotheses, and testing those hypotheses with data drawn from more than 150 of the state reorganizations that have taken place in this century. Dr. Garnett addresses three basic questions: Why do state reorganizations occur? How are they conducted? What forms do the reorganized executive branches take? His specific action guidelines for governors and other state officials, agenda for further research, and extensive bibliography will be particularly useful.

Preface -- Introduction -- Why State Executive Reorganizations Occur: Competing and Complementary Theoretical Perspectives -- Toward a New Typology of State Executive Reorganization -- Reorganization Strategies: How Much Is Known? -- Methodologies for Studying Reorganization: A Next Step -- Findings on Reorganization Patterns, Perspectives, Strategies, and Structures -- Conclusions, Action Guidelines, and Directions for Further Research -- State by State Data on Executive Branch Reorganizations, 1914–75 -- Reorganization Outcomes: Tables Showing Time Period and Regional Comparisons -- State Track Records on Reorganization Adoption: A Comparison, 1900–75 -- Relationships Between Strategy Variables and Reorganization Outcomes Under Political and Socioeconomic Contingencies