I have a friend who works for a think tank and studies politics intensively. I asked him whether he knew of any studies that compare the quality of services delivered by different state governments, possibly also comparing relative tax burdens. He didn't know of any.

Over the years, I have dealt with the motor vehicle departments of the four states where I have lived - Maryland, Virginia, South Carolina, and California. They seemed about the same, if I account for differences in years and things I have heard. I think that lines at various DMVs got shorter in the late '90s when they computerized more, then increased around 2000 when the economy weakened and states had to cut budgets.

The states with the two biggest populations, California and New York, seem to have the most trouble passing budgets. But you may hear more news about political gridlock in those states just because they are so big.

When you cross a state line on an interstate highway, you are likely to come to a welcome center where they give you a free map. Southern states may also give you a cup of coffee or cola. Big, high-tax states like California and New York may give you a crummy map, or no map. New Jersey, another high-tax state, doesn't seem to have welcome centers.

I think most people would agree that the cruder forms of corruption - bribery and nepotism - have decreased greatly in America at all levels of government over the last few decades. The subtler form of corruption known as campaign finance is getting worse at the federal level, I would say. Others might disagree.

>Citizens of the U.S. regularly complain about their government, being corrupt and so on. While citizens of the Netherlands also complain about their government, we do not perceive them as corrupt. We tend to think that corrupcy gets no chance in a small country where almost everybody knows almost everybody.
>Today I thought: 'How many people live in the federal states?' Each has its own government. Is it comparable with ours? Well, what do you think? Holland would be the 5th largest state of the U.S., if we were the 51th. We have appr. 16 million inhabitants.
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>Now I assume that the populations of the individual states do have opportunity for close contact with their federal governments. Does this help fight corrupcy?
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Alabama		 4,530,182
>Alaska		   655,435
>Arizona		 5,743,834