Chapter 7

Learning Objectives

After reading this chapter, students should be able to understand:

1.  The newly created states’ reluctance to grant power to governors, the further weakening of executive power under Jacksonian democracy, and twentieth-century efforts to empower the governor.

2.  The increasing quality and level of experience of recent governors and the demands placed on them by their new role in reinvigorated states.

3.  The reasons for and consequences of steadily rising costs of campaigns and the importance of incumbency and party strength in capturing the state house.

4.  The various roles of governors in state government.

5.  The formal powers available to governors and how they vary from state to state.

6.  The informal powers available to governors and the various ways governors may enhance those powers.

7.  The methods for removing governors from office.

8.  The roles of other key elected state executive branch officials.