Faculty Publications

State Response To Obama’s Broadband Access Policy: A Study In Policy Implementation

Document Type

Article

Journal/Book/Conference Title

Public Sector Transformation through E-Government: Experiences from Europe and North America

First Page

242

Last Page

253

Abstract

The focus of the Obama administration's policy for addressing Internet inequalities within the United States places an emphasis on addressing infrastructure barriers to residential areas. Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, grants and loans have been provided to states and local governments to extend high-speed broadband access to rural areas that have not been served by existing broadband providers. The response by the states to these programs has varied significantly. Some states have not followed up on these monies while others have used these programs as an opportunity to encourage local communities to pursue government ownership of broadband facilities or to finance the construction of infrastructure necessary for broadband services. This chapter explores factors that influence state-level response. Implementation theory suggests many factors may influence the extent that the policy is carried out including attitudes of the implementers towards the law, public opinion and state resources. Multivariate logistic regression analysis of fifty state data is used to test rival explanations for state response as of December 2010. Goggin et al.'s (1990) Communications Model is utilized in order to control for the influence of the federal government in this policy area.

Department

Department of Political Science

Original Publication Date

1-1-2012

DOI of published version

10.4324/9780203096680

Link to Full Text

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