fiscal federalism

OVERVIEW
In the field of federalism and intergovernmental relations, the Christian statesman needs the
skills to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate content from many sources. Toward that end, the
purpose of the Article Review Assignment is to aid in the development of those skills as they
apply to scholarship. The focus of the assignment will be on writing informative annotations for
the purpose of research along with a synthesis that integrates the assigned articles, comparing
them in response to a prompt question.
INSTRUCTIONS
Write an article review using these articles:
Collins, Brian K. and Brian J. Gerber. 2006. “Redistributive Policy and Devolution: Is State
Administration a Road Block (Grant) to Equitable Access to Federal Funds?” Journal of
Public Administration Research and Theory 16, no. 4: 613-632.
AND
Pagano, Michael A. and Jocelyn M. Johnston. 2000. “Life at the Bottom of the Fiscal Food
Chain: Examining City and County Revenue Decisions.” Publius 30, no. 1: 159-170
Obtain these articles through the Jerry Falwell Library online. Complete the assignment in
Turabian Author-Date style (no footnotes; only in-text citations) in Times New Roman (12 pt.),
with margins of 1”. Provide a title page and place page numbers in the upper right corner of the
document. A template for this assignment has been provided for you in the announcements. It is
expected that there will be ample citations throughout the assignment. However, there should be
no more than one or two short quotes. Paraphrase and summarize the material instead.
The review should include (in this order):
? Two Annotations [300–400 words each]. Each annotation should summarize the article,
including identifying the research question/thesis, methodology used, evidence or data
presented, major findings, and overall strengths or weaknesses of the article. Place a
bibliographic reference at the top of each annotation.
? One Synthesis [750–800 words]. The synthesis addresses the prompt question, using the
two articles to respond to the question, providing comparison/contrast and agreement/
disagreement between them. Organize the synthesis around answering the prompt
question. The structure of the synthesis should be the response to the question. For this
assignment, the prompt question is, “According to the authors, does the federal
government’s fiscal measures (both taxing and spending) have an over all beneficial
or negative effect on sub-national governments”?