RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
William J. Antholis, January 24, 2012, The Brookings Institution
In India, the shifting of power to the states is the opposite of the American experience. William Antholis describes how India’s founding fathers wanted a unitary government with federal features, which only started to decentralize after a half century. In the United States, the opposite happened, as strong states slowly gave way to a powerful (but still limited) federal government. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Jennifer Bradley, March 22, 2011, The Avenue, The New Republic
For metropolitan areas to properly hone their strengths as economic hubs, states must begin to foster growth generated by metros. Jennifer Bradley notes that states should prepare to redefine their roles. She also points to an article co-authored with Bruce Katz that outlines how states can make the shift. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Bruce Katz, Jennifer Bradley and Amy Liu, November 2010, Brookings Institution
In January, 37 state governors, many of them new, took office and came to face daunting economic and budget challenges. Bruce Katz, Jennifer Bradley and Amy Liu say that these governors must look to the economic power of their metropolitan areas and the tools—like infrastructure banks and regional business plans—to maximize these areas. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Tracy Gordon, September 17, 2010, The Brookings Institution
Tracy Gordon argues that the Great Recession has tested the federal-state-local partnership like no other time. Lessons learned from the stimulus and its extensive local reporting may hold lessons for the design of an ongoing countercyclical assistance program, a new “Federalism 2.0.” Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Pietro S. Nivola, March-April 2010 , The American Interest
America’s national government has had its hands full coping with a deep and lingering economic crisis and should not keep piling on second-tier tasks to its agenda, writes Pietro Nivola. A federal system of government should offer policymakers a division of labor, thereby enabling its central government to focus on primary public obligations. Turning every imaginable issue into a Federal case, diverts and polarizes political leaders at the national level, and erodes recognition of local responsibilities. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Darrell M. West, October 28, 2009, Politico
"Opt-out” has become the most powerful phrase in the health care debate, thanks to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s decision to include it in Senate legislation. If particular jurisdictions do not like a public option, they simply can exit the government health insurance system for uninsured residents. This is a very American idea, writes Darrell West. However, from a governance standpoint, the public option creates a worrisome precedent for other policy areas. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Mark Muro, October 22, 2009, The Brookings Institution
Some say there’s little that can be done to promote metro areas’ status in U.S. federalism but actually there’s a ton that can and should be done. Mark Muro outlines remedies for the absence of middle-tier (metro or regional) government in the context of the U.S. federalism debate. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Robert Puentes and Adie Tomer, October 08, 2009, The Brookings Institution
Robert Puentes and Adie Tomer assess metropolitan air travel trends over the past two decades. They find that most travel is consolidated within a select group of 26 metropolitan areas, which contribute to the country’s highest volume corridors and produce the worst on-time performance. Their findings reveal serious implications for the country’s aviation infrastructure as passenger volumes are predicted to grow in the coming years. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Ralph Buehler, John Pucher and Uwe Kunert, April 16, 2009, The Brookings Institution
To help improve the energy efficiency and overall environmental sustainability of the U.S. transportation system, we will need to adopt policies that foster changes in the way Americans travel. In a new report Brookings researchers find that Germany may offer valuable lessons. Like the United States, Germany is a federal republic but it has taken impressive steps to improve transportation options, link transportation planning to land use, and advance other reforms – all while empowering metropolitan action. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Mark Muro, Jennifer Bradley, Alan Berube, Robert Puentes, Sarah Rahman and Andrew Reamer, March 30, 2009, The Brookings Institution
America’s national economic crisis is also a metropolitan crisis, because metropolitan areas are the true engines of the national economy. So it matters intensely how well the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) empowers metropolitan leaders to boost prosperity. This paper finds that although ARRA is limited in its support for creative metropolitan-area implementation, it delivers critical investments in what matters to metros and holds out significant opportunity for metropolitan empowerment and problem-solving. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Bruce Katz, Mark Muro and Jennifer Bradley, March 11, 2009, Democracy Journal
U.S. metropolitan areas are the under-recognized engines of America’s economy, and the nation must adjust its federal system—and American federalism—to support them so they can lead us back to prosperity, write Bruce Katz, Mark Muro, and Jennifer Bradley in a major framing essay for Democracy: A Journal of Ideas. Read More
BOOK
David de Ferranti, Anthony J. Ody and with Justin Jacinto and Graeme Ramshaw, March 01, 2009
This perceptive book emphasizes the need for an overall analytical framework that can be applied to different countries to help analyze the current situation, identify potential areas for improvement, and assess their relative feasibility and the steps needed to promote them. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Bruce Katz, February 22, 2009, National Governors Association Winter Meeting
After years of benign neglect, the nation’s crumbling infrastructure is getting its public hearing. Bruce Katz delivered a major speech during a special session of the National Governors Association Winter Meeting dedicated to infrastructure financing, accountability and sustainability. He urged the critical importance of policy reform in shifting the infrastructure conversation from one focused on spending, to one focused on investing. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Mark Muro and Sarah Rahman, February 17, 2009, Real Clear Politics
President Obama’s economic recovery package will succeed to the extent it juices metropolitan areas, the true engines of the U.S. economy. Mark Muro and Sarah Rahman argue that, for all the business-as-usual in Washington, the disconnected funding flows of the stimulus will strengthen the cause of regionalism in America. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
William A. Galston, February 12, 2009, The Brookings Institution
The Obama administration won a hard-fought and much needed victory this week as U.S. lawmakers prepare to pass a $789 billion stimulus package to revive the struggling economy. But as Bill Galston cautions, the compromise reached by congressional negotiators—which cut items dear to liberals and the business community, and included less for states than the House and administration wanted—is hardly sufficient to inspire public confidence in government and fix the economy. Read More