Cammisa, Anne Marie

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Cammisa, Anne Marie

PERSONAL: Married Paul Christopher Manuel, June 27, 1992; children: Maria Teresa.

ADDRESSES: Office—Department of Government, Suffolk University, 41 Temple St., Donahue 514, Boston, MA 02114; fax: 617-367-4623. E-mail—acammisa@suffolk.edu.

CAREER: Writer and educator. Suffolk University, Boston, MA, assistant professor of government. Visiting scholar, Murray Research Center, Radcliffe College, 1994–.

WRITINGS:

Governments As Interest Groups: Intergovernmental Lobbying and the Federal System, Praeger (Westport, CT), 1995.

From Rhetoric to Reform?: Welfare Policy in American Politics, Westview Press (Boulder, CO), 1998.

(With husband, Paul Christopher Manuel) Checks and Balances?: How a Parliamentary System Could Change American Politics, Westview Press (Boulder, CO), 1999.

SIDELIGHTS: Anne Marie Cammisa is an author and professor of government. In her books, she examines topics such as public administration and policy, the role of government, and the American political system. In Governments As Interest Groups: Intergovernmental Lobbying and the Federal System, Cammisa offers an analysis of how state and local governments serve as their own interest groups, lobbying Congress and the federal government for funds, concessions, and other assistance. Cammisa presents a brief history of such intergovernmental lobbying and includes three detailed case studies of lobbying by state and local governments and five of the leading government associations. She explains how state and local government enjoyed the increased funding and ease of access offered by the federal grant system, which flourished from the New Deal era until approximately 1978. Federal grants began to decline in the late 1970s, and Cammisa carefully examines this period and what it meant to state and local governments. She concludes that state and local associations have much greater access to and influence over federal lawmakers and officials than other interest groups; in effect, the government strives to take care of itself from the federal level on down. "Anyone with an interest in how state and local governments lobby Congress will find [Cammisa's book] "an informative and facile read," commented Howard Moyes in Spectrum: The Journal of State Government. Publius reviewer Donald Haider concluded: "This study fills an important gap in the intergovernmental literature on the activity and relative effectiveness of intergovernmental lobbying in an era of revived federalism and declining federal aid."

From Rhetoric to Reform?: Welfare Policy in American Politics "provides a lucid and thorough analysis of the historical antecedents of American welfare policy," commented reviewer Stephen E. Condrey in the Public Administration Review. Cammisa discusses the inher-ent dilemma of welfare: the question of how to help those who are truly in need while discouraging the able-bodied poor from relying on assistance when they are capable of contributing to their own well-being. She looks at seven popular welfare myths and debunks them all, using both demographic and economic data. She provides a history of the American welfare system, carefully analyzes legislative issues pertaining to welfare, and addresses notions of reform as "class warfare" on the poor. Condrey concluded that Cam-misa's work will "prove valuable as a reference for those involved in developing and administering social welfare policy," as well as for students and teachers interested in such topics.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Perspectives on Political Science, fall, 1999, Timothy J. White, review of Checks and Balances?: How a Parliamentary System Could Change American Politics, p. 227.

Public Administration Review, May, 2001, Stephen E. Condrey, review of From Rhetoric to Reform?: Welfare Policy in American Politics, p. 375.

Publius, spring, 1996, Donald Haider, review of Governments As Interest Groups: Intergovernmental Lobbying and the Federal System, p. 143.

Spectrum: The Journal of State Government, spring, 1996, Howard Moyes, review of Governments As Interest Groups, p. 44.