Predictions, patterns, and policymaking: A regional study of devolution

This article examines state welfare policy choices since the passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996. It argues that neither prior predictions nor existing explanations of welfare policymaking fully capture the realities of reform. Using data from national studies and comparisons of Policymaking in six states, this study demonstrates that diversity, not uniformity, characterizes state responses to devolution. Accounting for these choices requires an understanding of the context of policymaking. Conventional analyses of welfare reform have ignored the institutional structures through which policy is formulated and thus miss an important determinant of choices: the actions of administrative officials. Analyses that ignore institutional settings, and the actions of administrators within such settings, will continue to miss much that is crucial to our efforts to understand Policy decisions.