The Governor as Innovator in the Federal System

Until recent decades, governors seeking to provide innovativeleadership often did so despite being handicapped by inadequateinstitutional powers, leaving them to their own personal skills.Recent reforms have now provided many governors with greaterinstitutional powers, including more tenure potential, enhancementof the governor's office, a stronger budget capacity, and therise of policy and planning offices located in or close to thegovernor's office. Most important, governors are more aggressivein seeking answers to policy issues both within their own statesand in collaboration with other governors. The National GovernorsAssociation has been upgraded to assist governors in dealingwith the federal government and with state problems. RecentNGA efforts in the areas of education and economic developmentmay presage an even more significant change as governors addressmajor issues jointly.     

Gubernatorial Transitions: Lessons From the 1982-1983 Experience

The 1982 gubernatorial elections led to transitions betweenoutgoing and incoming administrations in seventeen states. Thisarticle is an overview of what transpired during those transitionsbased on studies conducted by state analysts in sixteen of theseventeen states. While politics was still a major part of thecontext in which the transitions occurred, the fiscal situationin the states framed the transitions, and there was an apparentincrease in professionalism. Not all was politics. Further,transition is a longer period than normally understood, startingwell before the election and continuing until the legislaturehas adjourned.