Governors' Policy Agendas Over the Long Haul: State Priorities in a National Context.

We capture the policy agendas of governors in the areas of health, education and economic from 1991 through 2013 using their State of the State addresses. We analyze if and how policy diffusion occurs between governors' policy agendas in these areas and Congress and the president. Our research considers how federalism and the nature of gubernatorial policy agendas shape the state-federal relationship. We find that in economic policy the federal policy agenda influences the priorities found in State of the State addresses while in health policy the agendas of governors' influence federal level priorities. Overall, we find a more dynamic relationship between the levels of government than initially anticipated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]