Written by Dr. Philip Rocco, associate professor of political science
In “Counting Like a State,” Dr. 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 throughout the country. 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 Donald 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.
Learn more or purchase this book at University Press of Kansas.
Dr. Rocco answered some questions about his new book, including how the book complements his teaching and research, his favorite part of the writing process and where the idea for the book came from.
How would you describe the book in one sentence?
It’s an inside look at the 2020 Census that shows the importance of state and local cooperation in the massive, complex federal project of counting everyone once, only once, and in the right place.
Is this your first book? What is your publishing history?
I’m a co-author of “Obamacare Wars: Federalism, State Politics, and the Affordable Care Act,” now available in paperback, with a new preface, from the University Press of Kansas. I’m also a co-editor of “American Political Development and the Trump Presidency,” published by the University of Pennsylvania Press in 2020. “Counting Like a State” is my first solo-authored book, and it builds on research I’ve published on the politics of data in academic journals over the last half-decade.
Where did the idea for this book come from?
I have long used data from the US Census Bureau as an analytical “input” for my work. But when census operations came under political assault in 2017, I grew increasingly interested in the processes that ensure the quality of official statistics we rely on to reapportion Congress, redistrict state legislatures, allocate trillions in federal and state dollars, and carry out important city and regional planning activities. That fall, I began teaching a seminar on the politics of numbers. When I began searching for resources that would help me illustrate the importance of the census to my students, I came to discover that some of the best material came from state and local governments, as well as non-governmental organizations. These entities, I began to see, were not just census data “users” but critical players in safeguarding and enhancing the quality of the decennial count.
What was your favorite part of the writing/editing process?
This book is built around a set of interviews with brilliant public officials and nonprofit leaders whose work, while important, rarely attracts the limelight. These interviews were just brimming with insights about the “backstage” work of government that often never makes it into textbooks or lectures. While the pandemic cancelled much of my planned research travel, phone calls and Zoom chats provided a way to connect with people from coast to coast. In a dark and isolated time, I looked forward to each and every one of those conversations.
What do you hope to accomplish with this book?
My goal with this book is to introduce the reader to the idea that census taking — one of the most important, if invisible, tasks we perform in a democracy — hinges on the work of the “many hands” of government and civil society. Through collaborative partnerships as well as lawsuits, states, cities, counties, tribes and nongovernmental organizations can play a profound role in protecting official statistics when political actors attempt to manipulate them to gain advantage. By the end of the book, readers should have a roadmap to the many ways they can get involved in strengthening census data and, in turn, enhancing democracy — especially when institutions are under attack.
How does this book advance or complement your research and/or teaching?
My research focuses on federalism, the constitutional division of authority between a central authority (like the U.S. federal government) and regional governments (like the 50 states). Scholars often argue that by dividing power in this way, federalism creates “laboratories of democracy” in which states or cities can experiment with new policy ideas, and other governments (including the central government) can learn from their successes and failures. Yet my work illustrates that federalism can also construct an interconnected “infrastructure” for democracy. Neither states nor local governments have formal constitutional authority over census taking, yet their roles in the federal system allow them to perform several distinct repertoires of institutional action that strengthen census integrity. This includes everything from gathering and maintaining local knowledge about residential addresses to building census mobilization campaigns to filing lawsuits to stopping political efforts to sabotage census data.
This book grew out of a class I taught on the politics of numbers in the fall of 2017. I was fortunate to have an intrepid group of Marquette students who were willing to dive deeply into the arcane world of government data. Yet the findings in the book also have profoundly reshaped how I teach students about the politics of federalism, and the way they can become involved in their government.
Census taking — even though it’s vital to the functioning of democracy — is rarely a subject that makes it into introductory textbooks on American government. My hope is that my work will help to change that.
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Book Details
- Publisher: University Press of Kansas
- Publication date: June 17, 2025
- Language: English
- Print length: 304 pages
- ISBN-10: 0700639683
- ISBN-13: 978-0700639687
