Nuanced Preemption: A Case Study of State and Local Government Behavior During the COVID-19 Pandemic

This study reconceptualizes state preemption as a multidimensional policy design choice that actively reshapes state-local authority. We examine gubernatorial treatment of local governments through executive orders issued during the COVID-19 pandemic to capture the complexity of state-local interactions. Utilizing the Institutional Grammar Tool, we code executive orders to develop a novel measure that considers both the direction (authorization versus prohibition) and scope (narrow versus broad) of state intervention in local autonomy. This approach reveals variation in how states simultaneously constrain and empower local governments, demonstrating patterns that are obscured by conventional measures that treat preemption solely as a prohibitive instrument. The findings highlight the importance of nuanced measurement strategies for understanding intergovernmental dynamics, particularly in crisis contexts that are characterized by rapid policy change.