The Rise of the Entrepreneurial State: State and Local Economic Development Policy in the United States (La Follette Public Policy Series)

The Rise of the Entrepreneurial State charts the development of state and local government initiatives to influence the market and strengthen economic development policies. This trend marked a decisive break from governments’ traditionally small role in the affairs of private industry that defined the relationship between the public and private sector for the first half of the twentieth century. The turn to state and local government intervention signaled a change in subnational politics that, in many ways, transcended partisan politics, regional distinctions ,and racial alliances.

Eisinger’s meticulous research uncovers state and local governments’ transition from supply-side to demand-side strategies of market creation. He shows that, instead of relying solely on the supply-side strategies of tax breaks and other incentives to encourage business relocation, some governments promoted innovation and the creation of new business approaches.

Peter K. Eisinger is chair of the Department of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Eisinger is also a senior fellow at the Institute for Research on Poverty. His many books include The Conditions of Protest Behavior in American Cities, Racial Differences in Protest Participation, and Black Employment in Municipal Jobs: The Impact of Black Political Power.