dc.contributor.author	Erdmann, Jen Carson
dc.coverage.spatial	United States	en_US
dc.coverage.temporal	2016	en_US
dc.date.accessioned	2022-11-28T19:48:29Z
dc.date.available	2022-11-28T19:48:29Z
dc.date.issued	2022-09
dc.identifier.other	1477825B-ECE9-CFB9-47E1-B5A6E586C051	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/10428/6276
dc.description.abstract	This research examined the impact of the United States Department of Agriculture’s 2016 implementation of performance measures on the Specialty Crop Block Grant Program (SCBGP) to determine the effects of pre-set quantitative outcome measures on an existing block grant program in the understudied realm of federal agricultural food programs. Beginning with the New Public Management reforms of the 1990s, the topic was explored within the history of the federal government’s incrementally bound emphasis on numerical output measures to quantify interim and final results for its state block grant programs. The study also built on prior evaluations of the SCBGP which identified widespread stakeholder dissatisfaction with the 2016 measures. This quantitative study, framed within the context of systems theory, collected 13 years of SCBGP projects from all 50 states, then classified each project as either research or non-research. From there, three sets of project data were parsed and analyzed: that for Georgia, the other 49 U.S. states, and the 10 other states that receive funding similar to Georgia’s. It was determined that the introduction of performance measures effectively changed the SCBGP from a program that once mostly funded non-research projects to one that funded a significantly higher proportion of research projects. The implications of this change were explored and discussed in terms of what this shift might mean for states as they administer their SCBGP programs, as well as its bearing on the larger realm of federal-to-state agricultural grants administration. Keywords: SCBGP, Farm Bill, systems theory, incrementalism, federal-to-state grants, New Public Management, performance measures, agricultural research funding	en_US
dc.description.tableofcontents	Chapter I: INTRODUCTION 1 -- Statement of the Problem 3 -- Purpose 5 -- Research Questions and Hypotheses 7 -- Significance of Study 9 -- Conceptual Framework 11 -- Summary of Methodology 13 -- Limitations 13 -- Overview of Chapters 14 -- Chapter II: REVIEW OF LITERATURE 17 -- History of the SCBGP 18 -- SCBGP Funding Allocation and Project Selection 20 -- Prior Studies of the SCBGP 24 -- Incrementalism, NPM and Federally Mandated Metrics 28 -- Quantitative Measures to Improve Performance 33 -- Performance Metrics for the SCBGP: Current and New 36 -- Systems Theory as a framework to Study the SCBGP 41 -- Conclusion 43 -- Chapter III: METHODS AND PROCEDURES 48 -- Overview of Problem and Purpose 48 -- Paradigm and Methodology 49 -- Research Questions and Study Design 52 -- Data Collection 54 -- Data Analysis 62 -- Reliability and Validity 64 -- Limits of the Research 66 -- Population Size 66 -- Causation. 66 -- Conclusion 67 -- Chapter IV: RESULTS 70 -- Data Analysis and Results by Question 71 -- RQ1 71 -- RQ2 75 -- RQ3 78 -- Summary of Findings 81 -- Conclusion 84 -- Chapter V: DISCUSSION 87 -- Summary of Findings 88 -- Interpretation of Findings 89 -- Implications and Recommendations 96 -- National Level. 96 -- State Level. 99 -- Study Limitations and Further Recommendations 102 -- Conclusions 104 -- REFERENCES 106	en_US
dc.format.extent	1 electronic document and derivatives, 149 pages. 1103936 bytes.	en_US
dc.format.mimetype	application/pdf	en_US
dc.language.iso	en_US	en_US
dc.rights	This dissertation is protected by the Copyright Laws of the United States (Public Law 94-553, revised in 1976). Consistent with fair use as defined in the Copyright Laws, brief quotations from this material are allowed with proper acknowledgement. Use of the materials for financial gain with the author's expressed written permissions is not allowed.	en_US
dc.subject	Agricultural subsidies	en_US
dc.subject	Agriculture and state	en_US
dc.subject	Agriculture--Research	en_US
dc.subject	Dissertations, Academic--United States	en_US
dc.subject	Performance--Measurement	en_US
dc.subject	System theory	en_US
dc.subject	United States. Department of Agriculture	en_US
dc.title	An Evaluation of Changes to the Specialty Crop Block Grant Program as a Result of USDA’s 2016 Quantitative Performance Measurement Requirements	en_US
dc.type	Dissertation	en_US
dc.contributor.department	Department of Political Science of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences	en_US
dc.description.advisor	Peterson, Bonnie
dc.description.committee	Peterson, James
dc.description.committee	Caverly, Matthew
dc.description.degree	D.P.A.	en_US
dc.description.major	Public Administration	en_US