| Abstract: | Assisting communities to stimulate investment and to createjobs as part of a federal-state-local government and private-sectorpartnership is a key intergovernmental objective of the Clintonadministration, consistent with its agenda of reinventing government.The Empowerment Zones/Enterprise Cities (EZ/EC) Program, enactedby the Congress as part of the Omnibus Budget ReconciliationAct of 1993, reflects other federalism themes as well, themesthat predate the Clinton administration. A shift in federalpolicy during the 1980s, away from places and toward persons,set the stage for the long and difficult path of the EZ/EC programthrough the Congress. During that same decade, many states enactedtheir own enterprise-zone statutes; these initiatives were partof a second federalism trend—the general resurgence ofstates. The EZ/EC program also demonstrates the persistenceof partisanship in intergovernmental programs; empowerment-zoneand enterprise-community choices announced by the presidentin December 1994 reflected Clinton's need to satisfy his traditionalDemocratic constituencies. |
