Counting Like a State - (Studies in Government and Public Policy) by Philip Rocco

Book Synopsis

An inside look at the 2020 Census that shows the importance of state and local cooperation in the complex federal project of census taking.

The census plays a foundational, if all too easily ignored, role in the operation of the American state, shaping everything from congressional representation to the allocation of trillions of federal dollars. While census taking aspires to the high-modernist goal of "seeing like a state"--centralizing, standardizing, and homogenizing knowledge about a polity--it is subject to far more conflict and negotiation than final tabulations, maps, or technical documentation make apparent. This is especially true in a large, decentralized polity like the United States where the Constitution entrusts the ultimate authority for the census in the legislative branch.

In Counting Like a State, Philip Rocco shows how the production of the US census now hinges crucially not only on what happens in Washington but also on a series of intergovernmental partnerships. State and local officials, though not formally responsible for census taking, figure importantly in the implementation of the decennial count. These officials are essential partners in the construction and maintenance of address lists, as well as in outreach and promotion campaigns in hard-to-count communities. The 2020 Census compounded these challenges with new crises. Intergovernmental partnerships played a key role in preventing President Trump from adding a citizenship question, as state and local officials mounted a coordinated legal counteroffensive. Many local officials also simply refused to cooperate with the Trump administration's efforts to exclude undocumented immigrants from the apportionment count. The census also took place in the context of a global pandemic that stretched administrative resources to the breaking point. While these partnerships allowed the Census Bureau to adapt to ever-changing conditions on the ground, state and local governments also sounded the alarm when the Trump administration sought to rush the census. These efforts helped preserve the quality of the data collected in the 2020 count.

Rocco's illuminating study of the 2020 Census pulls back the curtain on the administrative state to reveal how something as complex and centralizing as a census takes place within a decentralized, federalist system. Drawing on analyses of interviews with hundreds of public officials and quantitative analyses of state and local census activities, Counting Like a State allows scholars and practitioners to better understand what facilitates as well as what impedes effective intergovernmental partnerships for census taking.

Review Quotes

"Philip Rocco has produced a highly readable and thought-provoking analysis of the importance of state and local governments in the effective conduct of the modern US census--a linchpin for our democracy. He documents how many state and local governments not only supported efforts to get people counted in 2020, but also fought attempts of the administration to skew the census results for partisan ends. He makes a strong case for strengthening the intergovernmental partnerships that are so vital for a fair and accurate count."--Constance F. Citro, coauthor of The Nation's Data at Risk: Meeting America's Information Needs for the 21st Century

"Rocco's study offers an in depth look at the intergovernmental relationships that guided the conduct of the 2020 Census, particularly the diverse 'Get Out the Count' outreach campaigns in local areas around the country. He has added important new insights into the fraught issues the country faced as Americans took a census during a pandemic. Rocco shows how the insights from the political science field of intergovernmental relations apply to the analysis of statistical policy making in the United States. The book should be widely read by the many 'stakeholders' in successful census taking, be they social scientists and statisticians, political leaders, or ordinary Americans."--Margo J. Anderson, author of The American Census: A Social History

"While most people might have forgotten about the 2020 Census by now, this wonderful new book by Philip Rocco shows us why we need to remember the lessons it teaches. One of the very few things that the Constitution says the government must do, the Census is a lot more than just counting the number of Americans. It draws a road map of how its institutions connect with the American people and how the federal, state, and local governments interconnect with each other and with the vast network of nonprofit social institutions across the country. Rocco's book uses the Census to provide an invaluable guide about what truly matters about the nation's politics institutions."--Donald F. Kettl, coauthor of Bridgebuilders: How Government Can Transcend Boundaries to Solve Big Problems

"In the middle of the twentieth century, the US tried to move on from a system that relied on thousands upon thousands of ordinary people across the nation to make an accurate count of all Americans. Yet, the system's architects undervalued local knowledge, resources, and political influence, just as census data was taking on new powers to allocate funds and representation. In this original, extensively researched, and excellent study of the 2020 decennial census, Rocco reveals the contested construction and imperfect operation of a new system for harnessing the intellectual and political energies of communities, cities, and states."--Dan Bouk, author of Democracy's Data: The Hidden Stories in the US Census and How to Read Them

"Counting Like a State offers engaging insight into the role of state, local, and nongovernmental involvement in the US Census, a process that is typically considered from the perspective of the federal government. By focusing on the particularities of the 2020 Census, Rocco compellingly shows how state and local governments promote the integrity of census practices and census data, sometimes in partnership with the federal government and sometimes in conflict with it."--Emily Klancher Merchant, author of Building the Population Bomb