Counting Like a State: The Politics of Intergovernmental Partnerships in the 2020 Census

Political Science Quarterly (2023): 10.1093/psquar/qqad003

28 Pages Posted: 31 Jan 2023 Last revised: 8 May 2023

See all articles by Philip Rocco

Philip Rocco

Marquette University - Department of Political Science

Date Written: January 30, 2023

Abstract

State and local officials played an almost unprecedented role in the implementation of the 2020 census. Given a variety of fiscal and political challenges, subnational governments collectively invested billions of dollars to motivate participation in the count, especially among historically undercounted populations. Nevertheless, state and local investments in the census varied substantially. This article examines the roots of variation in state and local census investments, drawing on a set of 76 interviews with public officials and nonprofit leaders, as well as quantitative analyses of state and local decisions. The results indicate that census investments depend on the salience of the 2020 count to public officials, the partisan identities and incentives of governing coalitions, and the availability of subnational institutional capacity for census operations. These findings have important implications for how we think about the role of intergovernmental relations in supporting critical governance tasks in an increasingly turbulent institutional context.

Keywords: U.S. census; federalism; intergovernmental relations

Suggested Citation

Rocco, Philip, Counting Like a State: The Politics of Intergovernmental Partnerships in the 2020 Census (January 30, 2023). Political Science Quarterly (2023): 10.1093/psquar/qqad003, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4342915 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4342915

Philip Rocco (Contact Author)

Marquette University - Department of Political Science ( email )

United States

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