From Variables to Mechanisms in Federalism Research

Scott L Greer

Publius: The Journal of Federalism, 2026, vol. 56, issue 1, 226-247

Abstract: Federalism merits attention because of how it affects things that matter—outcomes as fundamental as democracy and the welfare state. This article critiques the common, variable-based approach to understanding federalism’s impact, arguing that it violates multiple rules of good inference such as the number and independence of cases or consistent variable coding. It then proposes an alternative, case-based approach that tries to understand cases as constituted by the interactions of variables (mechanisms) rather than as opportunities to identify the impact of single variables. It shows the method in the abstract, using a hierarchy of variables to understand the development of the welfare state in federations with illustrations from the United States. The impact of federalism and interesting research questions, become clearer by examining the mechanisms at work in its interaction with other variables in a concrete case.

Keywords: comparative federalism; comparative politics; public policy; social welfare; welfare policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/publius/pjaf073 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:publus:v:56:y:2026:i:1:p:226-247.

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://academic.oup.com/journals

Access Statistics for this article

Publius: The Journal of Federalism is currently edited by Paul Nolette and Philip Rocco

More articles in Publius: The Journal of Federalism from CSF Associates Inc. Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().