State Legislatures Today - POLS 3314 PDF

STATE LEGISLATU RES TODAY Chapter One: Ninety-Nine Chambers and Why it Matters POLS 3314: Legislative Process Dr. Bianca OBJECTIVES Trace the evolution of state...

STATE LEGISLATU RES TODAY Chapter One: Ninety-Nine Chambers and Why it Matters POLS 3314: Legislative Process Dr. Bianca OBJECTIVES Trace the evolution of state Explain the six legislatures characteristics of state legislatures   Colonies before Congress => State legislatures are not imitations of Congress HISTORY OF  State legislatures contributed to the Constitutional design of Congress STATE  Bicameral body LEGISLATUR  Senate longer terms than House ES  Differences  Location of branches in Constitutions (fused today vs. separated) STATE LEGISLATIVE EVOLUTION IN THE 19TH CENTURY  The power of state legislatures waned while Congress was becoming more powerful  Well-developed institutions  Standing committees  Sophisticated rules and procedures  Professionalized  State legislators reigned in, but Congress became more powerful  Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth amendments (after the Civil War) Significant variation across states and Congress Congress became more professional and equipped to meet policy changes while state legislatures lagged behind What is a professional legislature? Meets in unlimited session Provides superior staff resources Pay members well enough to allow them to pursue service as their vocation EVOLUTION IN THE 20 TH CENTURY Number of Houses Bicameral legislatures (except for Nebraska) House Names House of Representative and Senate Member Size (usually established by state constitution) Ranges in size 20 members in the Alaska Senate (small) 400 members in the New Hampshire House Lower house has more members, but none as large as the U.S. House U.S. Senate larger than any state senates (Minnesota has 67 members) BASIC CHARACTERISTICS OF STATE LEGISLATURES TODAY BASIC CHARACTERISTICS OF STATE LEGISLATURES TODAY Bicameral Size Differences Term Limits (Rotation)  May affect their relationship –  15 states (see Table 1.3 (pg. 21))  Consequences relative capacity to gather and  Greater turnover digest information  Instability in standing committee  Legislative capacity that creates systems  Less investment of legislatures to learn bottlenecks about proposed policies  As the ratio of lower house seats  Disadvantages relation with the executive branch to upper house seat increases,  Less interested in oversight of the state expenditures decrease bureaucracy  Supermajority voting rules may  No impact on spending levels but lower bond levels (the ability of legislators to revers that relationship set effective fiscal policy  Geographic Size Varies Significant implications for representation “Sparsely populated areas combined with inaccessible topography can conspire to make effective representative challenge” BASIC Multimember Districts (MMDs) CHARACTERIS Table 1.4 (pg 24) TICS OF MMDs are more likely to think of themselves STATE as trustees (act in the broader interests of their constituents) than delegates (reflecting LEGISLATURE their preferences) S TODAY Claim to spend more time providing constituent services Collaborative on legislative issues but less successful in getting bills through Bring to bring home more government dollars to their constituents In some states, they were more ideologically diverse