The Promises and Pitfalls of Devolution: Water Pollution Policies in the American States

This article investigates state reactions to the relativelydecentralized federal policy structures that are now in placefor non–point source water pollution control and assessesthe extent to which state policies are living up to the promisesof the policy devolution agenda. It develops and presents measuresof state non–point source policy activism for all fiftystates and analyzes the likely sources of variation in statepolicies. In so doing, it finds evidence that the "promisesof devolution" are not being fulfilled across all states. Theanalysis also yields insights that can contribute to the developmentof new and more flexible federal-state policy arrangements ina policy area that has been characterized by command-and-controlregulation.