Partisanship and Purse Strings: A Research Note on Sharkansky

Gary F. Moncrief, Boise State University
Joel A. Thompson, Appalachian State University

Abstract

This note reports research undertaken in an attempt to shed additional light on the state budgetary process. A partial replication of Ira Sharkansky's study, "Agency Request, Gubernatorial Support, and Budget Success in State Legislatures," is performed in order to test a hypothesis not considered in the original analysis: the state budgetary process is in large part a function of the majority-minority status of the governor's legislative party. This hypothesis is tested with the causal modeling technique employed by Sharkansky. Strong support for the partisanship hypothesis is found.