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JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT POLICY AND PRACTICE
Politics and Pavement: An Examination of the Allocation of Alabama Highway
Construction and Maintenance Dollars
Author(s): Jim F. Couch, Keith D. Malone, Robert W. Armstrong
Citation: Jim F. Couch, Keith D. Malone, Robert W. Armstrong, (2011) "Politics and Pavement: An Examination of the Allocation of Alabama Highway Construction and Maintenance Dollars," Journal of Management Policy and Practice, Vol. 12, Iss. 3, pp.11 - 16
Article Type: Research paper
Publisher: North American Business Press
Abstract:
The Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama (PARCA) reported the allocation of highway
maintenance and construction funds across Alabama’s 67 counties. They note a wide variation in county
funding versus indicators of county need. In this paper, the role of politics is examined in road building.
Politicians, no matter how public spirited they claim to be, have a strong incentive to search for
programs that benefit their home districts. We find evidence that suggests that the executive guides
dollars to the districts of his friends in the legislature and that legislators use their position on powerful
committees to steer funds to their home districts. A pure political model explains roughly one-third of
total spending.
