State Interventions and Interlocal Collaborations Across the Three Pillars of Sustainability

• Author: Jayce L. Farmer
• Published date: 01 June 2022
• Date: 01 June 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0160323X221089664
• Subject Matter: Original Research General Interest Articles

State Interventions and

Interlocal Collaborations

Across the Three Pillars

of Sustainability

Jayce L. Farmer

Abstract

The literature on interlocal sustainability has acknowledged that the resources and authority of state

governments inf‌luence the collaborative sustainability policy actions of local governments. However,

there is an absence of empirical evidence that shows how this inf‌luence varies across the environ-

mental protection, economic development, and social equity pillars of sustainability. This study uses

data from a 2015 national survey of U.S. cities to shed light on the connection between state-level

interventions and regional partnerships across the three primary sustainability policy dimensions.

With an understanding gleaned from the concept of contested federalism, this analysis employed

Bayesian techniques to examine how state f‌iscal support for sustainability, along with f‌iscal and func-

tional decentralization in state systems, affect municipal collaborative policy efforts. The f‌indings

suggest a positive link between supportive state-level endeavors and local-level collaborations.

However, state inf‌luences can have different implications across the three pillars of sustainability.

Keywords

sustainability pillars, collaborative sustainability, federalism, environmental protection, interlocal

collaboration, sustainable development, social equity

Introduction

During recent decades, state governments have

expanded their roles in addressing sustainability

related issues such as climate change,water con-

servation, land use planning, and environmental

justice. The inherent cross-boundary nature of

sustainability issues provides states the motiva-

tion to engage in and inf‌luence collaborative

policy development and implementation (Rabe

2002). States can use the f‌lows of resources

and authority to facilitateor constrain the collab-

orative policy actions of local governments

(Youm and Feiock 2019). Although empirical

evidence demonstrates how this multilevel gov-

ernance inf‌luence affects interlocal regional

partnerships to address specif‌ic environmental

issues such as climate change (Youm and

Feiock 2019), there is little or no research that

explores state inf‌luence on collaborations

across all three pillars (or policy dimensions)

of sustainability, namely, environmental protec-

tion, economic development, and social equity.

School of Public Polilcy and Leadership, University of

Nevada Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Corresponding Author:

Jayce L. Farmer, School of Public Polilcy and Leadership,

University of Nevada Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.

Email: jayce.farmer@unlv.edu

Original Research General Interest Articles

State and Local Government Review

2022, Vol. 54(2) 120-145

© The Author(s) 2022

Article reuse guidelines:

sagepub.com/journals-permissions

DOI: 10.1177/0160323X221089664

journals.sagepub.com/home/slg

The purpose of this article is to f‌ill this

lacuna by establishing an empirical connection

between state interventions and municipal par-

ticipations in interlocal collaborative endeavors

across the three major sustainability pillars.

Thus, the primary question is, to what extent

do state-level f‌iscal resources and the f‌lows of

f‌iscal and functional local authority affect

municipal decisions to collaborate with other

local governments across the environmental,

economic, and social equity sustainability

policy areas? This question is examined

through the theoretical lens of contested federal-

ism, which argues that competing goals and

incentives in state-local government relation-

ships lead to policy misalignments that cause

distinct political transaction costs, which can

impede sustainability actions (Rabe 2011;

Youm and Feiock 2019; Farmer 2021; Feiock

2008). This theoretical perspective suggests

that multilevel governance support within

these hierarchical relationships can reduce the

vertically distributed transaction costs (Youm

and Feiock 2019; Feiock 2009; Homsy and

Warner 2015; Huang and Berry 2021; Zhau

and Dai 2022). This hierarchical focus high-

lights how the differences in attributes across

sustainability policy dimensions affect munici-

pal decisions to engage in interjurisdictional

collaboration. The differences between the

environmental, economic, and equity aspects

of urban sustainability have varying implica-

tions for the policy actions of municipalities

(Opp and Saunders 2013). Variations in the

urban, social, and regulatory related issues of

policy domains have been found to have differ-

ent state-level impacts on commitments to sus-

tainability efforts (Saha 2009; Zeemering

2012; Krause 2011; Portney 2013). Therefore,

it is important to systematically investigate

how state involvement affects interlocal collab-

orative efforts across each of the three sustain-

ability policy dimensions.

In the following section, the theoretical expla-

nations of interlocal collaboration and the signif‌i-

cance of collaborations in shaping regional

governance are highlighted. Thereafter, a multi-

level governance perspective is introduced, using

practical illustrations of state-level involvement

in local government collaborations across the

three sustainability areas. Following this,

drawing on the concept of contested federalism,

a theoretical understanding of state-local relations

within the context of the three pillars of sustain-

ability is developed. With the application of this

understanding, the analysis assesses local sustain-

ability collaborations, using data from a 2015

national survey of U.S. cities. Bayesian techniques

were employed to examine how state f‌iscal

support for sustainability, along with f‌iscal and

functional decentralization within states, affect

municipal efforts for interlocal collaboration on

environmental protection, economic develop-

ment, and social equity sustainability policies.

The analytical results provide three key points

that highlight how state-level interventions have

different implications for municipalities collabo-

rating with other local governments to support

positive sustainability outcomes across the three

major sustainability policy dimensions.

Explanation of Interlocal

Collaboration for Sustainability

Collaboration on sustainability issues is funda-

mental but often overlooked in local govern-

ment research (Bowman et al. 2020). The

regional nature of urban systems throughout

the U.S. means that self-organized collaboration

between fragmented local governments is a nec-

essary but delicate approach to solving regional

sustainability problems (Carr, Hawkins and

Westberg 2017). In this context, interlocal col-

laboration refers to the development of coordi-

nated efforts by independent general-purpose

jurisdictions to achieve a common goal

(Costillo 2019; Youm and Feiock 2019; Chen

and Thurmaier 2009; ICMA 2015). Because

regional urban systems are geographically con-

nected, there are transboundary f‌lows through

networks of people and trade (Ramaswami

et al. 2018). This makes collaboration between

local governments within the same regional

area especially important to achieve desirable

sustainability outcomes.

A signif‌icant section of the literature that

examines interlocal collaboration used the

Farmer 121