Camden Mayor Vincent Sheheen says most South Carolinians can name the president and argue about Washington, but few can explain how the government in Columbia actually works, even though state decisions shape daily life far more directly.
That gap is what pushed Sheheen, a former state senator and state representative, to write The Concise Guide to South Carolina State Government, a new reference-style book published by the University of South Carolina Press. Sheheen discussed the book Tuesday, Jan. 27, during a public talk and Q&A hosted by Books on Broad at the Sheheen Colonial Artisan Center at Historic Camden.
“I taught a class on South Carolina government and politics and there was no book,” Sheheen told the audience, recalling his years teaching in the University of South Carolina Honors College. The only text available, he said, dated to the early 1990s and required extensive workarounds because so much of state government had changed. “It was really frustrating to give the kids a book and say, OK, mark out chapter five … mark out chapter 12,” he said.
So Sheheen walked into the USC Press offices and pitched the project himself. The goal, he said, was a readable guide that could be used by college students, teachers, consultants and residents who want to understand state government, from history and structure to the day-to-day work of agencies.
During the talk, Sheheen outlined the book’s organization: an opening history chapter tracing South Carolina’s development from early European settlement and colonial rule through the Civil War, Reconstruction and into the modern era, followed by chapters on the branches of state government, major agencies and local government.
He said the book needed narrative and character to keep it from becoming “so boring,” so he added short biographical vignettes throughout — including figures such as Robert Smalls, the formerly enslaved South Carolinian who escaped during the Civil War and later held office, and Solomon Blatt, a longtime legislative leader. Sheheen also said he intentionally included stories connected to Camden, such as former Gov. John C. West.
One of the biggest surprises in his research, Sheheen said, was how much he learned about the Reconstruction era in South Carolina and how many enduring institutions trace back to that period.
“Our state superintendent of education position was created during that time and our free public schools were created during that time,” he said, calling Reconstruction “really meaningful for the country and certainly meaningful for South Carolina.”
Sheheen argued that one thread runs through the state’s political culture across eras: resistance to centralized authority.
“South Carolina’s people and government have maintained a culture and governing structure that rejects centralization of power,” he read from the book’s introduction, describing that skepticism of concentrated power as a throughline whether the state was pushing back against England, federal authority or other forms of control.
He also highlighted a structural feature he said sets South Carolina apart: judges are selected through a process controlled by the legislative branch rather than appointed by the governor, a practice rooted in colonial distrust of royal authority. That history, he said, helped produce a judiciary that is “nonpartisan,” which he described as increasingly rare.
Sheheen also used the event to walk listeners through a major shift he believes many residents — and even some elected officials — still misunderstand: the rise of the governor’s power.
“We still think, oh, the legislature runs everything, and that is not true in the state anymore,” he said. Over the last two decades, he said, South Carolina has moved from a historically weak governor to an executive with appointment power across much of state government, a change he called one of the book’s core premises.
Sheheen pointed to the 2014 restructuring of state administration as a turning point, saying it created clearer accountability by consolidating responsibilities and requiring legislative oversight of executive agencies. Before that change, he said, lawmakers often did not scrutinize agencies until there was a crisis.
As the discussion turned toward civic responsibility, Sheheen said he deliberately framed the book with a message he repeated at both the beginning and end: government reflects the people who choose it.
“One of the things that frustrated me most was when people would complain about their government,” he said. “I wanted to say, go look in the mirror because you get what you vote for.”
During the Q&A, audience members asked Sheheen about the personal roots of his public service and changes in South Carolina government over the past half-century. Sheheen credited his family’s emphasis on duty and honor in public service, particularly within immigrant families, for instilling a sense of obligation to give back.
Sheheen’s book is available for purchase at Books on Broad in Camden.
