The Politics Of State-Level Industrial Policy: Lessons From Rhode Island's Greenhouse Compact

Abstract
In this article we evaluate Rhode Island voters' rejection of the Greenhouse Compact, a $750 million, seven-year, comprehensive economic development plan designed to create 60,000 new jobs and increase wages statewide. After describing the proposal and examining criticisms of it, we argue that the defeat of the Greenhouse Compact was a consequence of its procedures as much as of its content. Voters rejected the distribution of costs and benefits under the plan and its elitist, exclusionary characteristics. We conclude with suggestions for planners, based on the principle that economic development planning or industrial policymaking must be as concerned about how a program is designed, publicized, and implemented as about the substance of the plan itself.

This publication has 1 reference indexed in Scilit: