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Through an examination of the implementation of the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act in the state of Mississippi, we explore the adequacy of traditional two-actor principal-agent theory. Using this as our lens, we suggest that the choices made by Mississippi in the area of welfare reform to privatize much of the work and to add several layers to the existing principal-agent relationship substantially reduced accountability and the effectiveness of the monitoring systems. We conclude that not only is traditional principal-agent theory an insufficient tool for understanding the complex interrelationship between democratic actors in this particular case, the decisions of the state of Mississippi to complicate the principal-actor relationship through privatization also undermined the reform effort itself in ways that may have general implications for other like-minded efforts in other policy areas.There are those who are undermining what we are trying to achieve … -Bud Henry,

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This paper examines the choices made by states in the implementation of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996. Commonly known as TANF, the legislation gives states substantial control over the choices of benefits and sanctions they impose on program recipients. Using the models and theoretical explanations offered by Soss et al. (2001) and tested in a 49-state model, we test the degree to which these explanations hold when applied to a regional analysis of southern states. We find that the southern states are similar to the rest of the country when it comes to setting TANF benefit choices, although social control explanations are more important for southern states than for the rest of the nation.

Objective. The passage of the Affordable Care Act of 2010 has been one of the most hotly debated policy issues in recent memory. Southern state politicians seem particularly opposed to the law, but data suggest that citizens of southern states would benefit from the law. This article explores the choices made by states in terms of their acceptance and implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Healthcare Act (PPACA). Methods. Employing standard explanators of state policy choices, coupled with common indicators of public health, we examine a cross-sectional, 50-state regression model to determine whether southern states are different from other states in their policy choices in this arena. Results. We find that southern state choices are driven by control of the governor's mansion, while other factors drive non-South state choices. Conclusion. Our findings lend support to the notion of southern distinctiveness-southern states are driven more by politics, while non-South states are driven more by state circumstances.