Alabama State Department of Public Health

Why does politics rank right after football as Alabama's favorite sport? Auburn University political scientist David Martin's third edition of the 1975 classic, Alabama's State and Local Governments, provides a unique viewpoint in answer to this question. Martin, a well-known expert on how government works in Alabama, also lets the reader in on the answers to some other intriguing questions, such as ... Why do voters in Chilton County cast more than one vote each? Why does a municipal judge in Alabama have to be a lawyer, while a county probate judge does not? How much are the members of the Alabama Legislature paid? If you don't pay your Alabama state taxes, how will the Department of Revenue track you down? What questions does the State Ethics Commission complaint form ask? What prisons are located in Alabama and how long do inmates typically serve? Whether you are a public official, lobbyist, teacher, librarian, or citizen interested in politics, Martin's 288-page book offers the concise information you need on the state's governmental system. This volume is profusely illustrated, with dozens of charts and tables, and a detailed index, which allows you to find quickly answers to questions about Alabama government. A valuable resource for anyone interested in politics in the South, Alabama's State and Local Governments will be especially helpful to those who want to compare Alabama's state government to the governments of other southern states.

With the collapse of national health care reform efforts in the early 1990s, states emerged as a focal point for new policy and administrative developments in U.S. health care. This book provides a timely overview of the key issues facing states as they have responded to this challenge. It tells how states are making decisions about health policies and then putting them into action -- and how legislatures, executives, courts, and bureaucracies all participate in this process. The New Politics of State Health Policy describes many of the major trends in states' responses to health care problems of the 1990s, and it identifies the forces that will influence state policy actions in the new century. It examines reforms now under way, from Medicaid to tobacco control to mental health, and addresses today's most pressing issues surrounding managed care, health insurance, and public health administration. Editors Hackey and Rochefort have brought together a distinguished group of scholars and practitioners in the field of health policy analysis. Frank Thompson, Theodore Marmor, Michael Dukakis, and others map out the different institutional frames shaping how each state approaches the health care domain. While some states deliberate over universal coverage, others have shifted to the county level decisions once made in Washington, D.C. But all face the difficulty of taking on unprecedented responsibilities with limited resources amid the often-conflicting concerns of public management and "moral politics". Each contribution in the volume explores the interplay between state governance and health care policy by addressing four themes: the capacity of states to fulfill their new healthcare roles, the significance of recent policy changes, patterns in the politics of state health policy making, and the relationship of state-level changes to failed national health care reform.