ABSTRACT
Deil Wright and Dale Krane’s definitional treatment of federalism, intergovernmental relations, and intergovernmental management are used as a base to study the differing environments of the intergovernmental field in the second decade of the 21st century. While the philosophical base of federalism has been important to the ongoing development of the U.S. intergovernmental system, there is very little current philosophy devoted to understanding the powers and alignment between American governments, only contingency and opportunism. The pendulum has swung back and forth between devolution and centralization, and in recent years the federal government exerted more control over the political landscape of intergovernmental relations, although the states have pushed back with suits. Policy productivity in Washington, D.C. is marked by comparatively few legislative acts in the past decade. However, the bills signed into law include some very large “punctuations,” including the Troubled Assets Relief Program, the Affordable Care Act, and the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act. IGR does not accurately capture contemporary arrangements. Political borders have been rendered far less significant in policy and administrative contexts, and the private, non-profit, and government sectors are far more intricately intertwined in policy and administration. In this environment, intergovernmental management needs the creativity of cross-sectoral networks to cope with ongoing policy problems that require public service responses, despite the lack of focus from Washington.
