Nationalization of the American States

Abstract

This paper describes a test of the nationalization thesis that the American states have become similar in their policies and that variance in states' policies has decreased to the point where no significant policy differences remain. A time series analysis of states' expenditures in four policy areas reveals that relative variation remains unchanged and that absolute variation increases in all policy areas during the 1958-1974 period. In addi tion, a time series analysis of the effect of region on policy variation provides no support for the argument that the process of diffusion results in a stable state of policy uniformity across time.