Download or read book Accountability in State Legislatures written by Steven Rogers and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2023-09-11 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "State legislatures hold tremendous authority over key facets of our lives, in domains ranging from healthcare to education to election administration. And in an era of polarization and frequent policy gridlock at the national level, their significance has only increased. Political scientist Steven Rogers asks what voters know about state legislators, whether they have a meaningful opportunity to register their preferences in state legislative elections, and if there is evidence of accountability for performance in the outcomes of those elections. Drawing on broad-ranging evidence and creative research strategies, Rogers shows that, most often, state legislatures can produce policies contrary to citizens' priorities with little fear of being held accountable at the ballot box. Assembling an encyclopedic range of data on candidacy and retirements, lawmaker issue stances, news coverage, general elections, primaries, electoral competition, legislator effectiveness, state economic performance, public opinion, voter knowledge, and election outcomes, this book foregrounds a major issue: Voters do not know enough about their state representatives. They are often not presented with alternatives in elections where incumbents routinely run unopposed, and outcomes normally fail to correlate with indicators of legislative performance, either for individual lawmakers or in the aggregate performance of state government"--

Download or read book The Accountability of State Legislatures written by John G. Grumm and published by . This book was released on 1977* with total page 27 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Legislative Voting and Accountability written by John M. Carey and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2008-12-15 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Legislatures are the core representative institutions in modern democracies. Citizens want legislatures to be decisive, and they want accountability, but they are frequently disillusioned with the representation legislators deliver. Political parties can provide decisiveness in legislatures, and they may provide collective accountability, but citizens and political reformers frequently demand another type of accountability from legislators – at the individual level. Can legislatures provide both kinds of accountability? This book considers what collective and individual accountability require and provides the most extensive cross-national analysis of legislative voting undertaken to date. It illustrates the balance between individualistic and collective representation in democracies, and how party unity in legislative voting shapes that balance. In addition to quantitative analysis of voting patterns, the book draws on extensive field and archival research to provide an extensive assessment of legislative transparency throughout the Americas.

Download or read book The Illusion of Accountability written by Justin H. Kirkland and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2022-08-25 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Does open governance strengthen democracy? The Illusion of Accountability contends that it does not. Leveraging a wealth of data from decades of legislative politics in the American states, the book assesses the causes and consequences of 'open meetings laws,' which require public access to proceedings in state legislatures. The work traces the roots of these laws back to the founding constitutions of some states and analyzes the waves of adoptions and exemptions to open meetings that occurred in the twentieth century. The book then examines the effects of these transparency laws on a host of politically consequential outcomes both inside and outside the legislature. This analysis consistently finds that open meetings do not influence legislators' behavior or citizens' capacity to alter that behavior. Instead, a link between transparent legislatures and an expanded system of organized interests is established. This illuminating work concludes that transparency reform only creates the illusion of accountability in state government.

Download or read book The Politics of Accountability in the Modern State written by Matthew Flinders and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-10-05 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This title was first published in 2001: In this compelling work, Matthew Flinders examines how far alternative forms of accountability have evolved and the extent to which they remedy the current shortcomings of the parliamentary system. Adopting a pluralistic perspective, this exploration of the accountability of the core executive is clearly grounded in research methodology, thus ensuring the book makes a valid, incisive contribution to the literature. Features include: - A detailed study of the location of power and mechanisms of accountability in modern government which challenges the largely prosaic existing literature - Useful summaries of the key tensions and trends within constitutional infrastructure - A new and refreshing approach to the study of central government - Insightful critiques of major governmental policies This intriguing volume will be of interest to undergraduates, post-graduates and lecturers for courses on legislative studies, central government reform, public administration, British politics and research methods.

Download or read book Accountability and Governance in Education written by National Conference of State Legislatures and published by . This book was released on 1988 with total page 8 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Representation in State Legislatures written by Malcolm E. Jewell and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2021-03-17 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Every two years American voters turn out to elect several thousand representatives to state legislatures. Only now in Representation in State Legislatures do we have a detailed examination of how these officials perceive their jobs and how they attempt to do them. To provide answers to these questions, Malcolm E. Jewell conducted intensive interviews with 220 members of houses of representatives in nine selected states. He asked each legislator how he kept in touch with his constituents, how he resolved matters of policy, how he sought government resources for his district, and what services he provided for individual constituents. State legislatures differ greatly, and they are not institutionalized to the same degree as the national congress. It is difficult, therefore, to generalize on such effects as partisanship. Likewise it appears that past explanatory models do not adequately describe the complex relationships seen by most legislators in their work. The state legislature is changing. It is becoming more institutionalized. It is becoming more stable as fewer members retire and more are reelected. The trend is toward longer sessions, increased staff, and more activity. With this trend the legislator is becoming more visible; he can deal with lawmaking while having greater opportunities to provide services and to gain publicity for them. As the move, begun by the Reagan administration, to put more responsibility for programs on the states continues, the state legislatures will assume a place of greater importance in the governing of the United States. This pioneering study of representation will thereby gain significance both for the understanding it imparts and for the new questions it raises.

Download or read book State Legislatures Today written by Peverill Squire and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2015-03-26 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A concise and provocative introduction to State Legislative Politics, State Legislatures Today is designed as a supplement for state and local government courses and upper level courses on legislative politics. The book examines state legislatures and state lawmakers, putting them in historical context, showing how they have evolved over the years, and differentiating them from Congress. It covers state legislative elections (including the impact of redistricting, candidate recruitment, etc.), the changing job description of state legislators, legislatures as organizations, the process by which legislation gets produced, and the influences upon legislators. Many things have happened in the five years since the popular first edition. Significant developments addressed in the new edition include: 1. The rise of the Tea Party Movement, which has contributed to the stalemate in Congress and greatly influenced legislative politics in many states. Indeed, the Tea Party’s greatest impact has been in state capitals, not in Washington, DC. 2. A marked increase in one-party government, resulting in greatest number of states with one-party government in at least fifty years. One-party government, of course, allows for dramatic policy shifts. Thus, governors and state legislatures have been able to make significant policy decisions while Congress and the President have been gridlocked. 3. A dramatic increase in the use of recall elections (Arizona, Michigan and Wisconsin) and referenda to challenge legislative policy decisions (Idaho, South Dakota, Ohio, and Washington), signaling a growing frustration with legislative policies in some states. Recall elections and referenda only occur at the state level. 4. Changes in term limits and budgeting laws in California directly affecting the work of the legislature in the largest state in the Union. 5. Highly visible state legislative policies on hot-button issues such as gun control, taxation, public employee benefits, teachers’ unions, taxation, abortion, immigration and education reform. The conflicts generated by these debates have produced incidents that captured national attention, perhaps most notably when Democrats in the Wisconsin Senate fled to Illinois to break quorum and prevent the Republicans from passing a measure limiting public unions in the state. 6. Efforts to profoundly alter the structure of some state legislatures, such as a measure to substantially reduce the number of legislative seats in Pennsylvania and a proposed initiative to radically increase the number of seats in California. 7. The culmination of a redistricting cycle in 2012 which alters the nature of many legislative districts and the course of politics and policy over the next decade. 8. A rare and historic “wave election” in 2010 that saw the Republican Party gain more than 700 seats in state legislatures.

Download or read book Government Accountability and Legislative Oversight written by Riccardo Pelizzo and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-11-12 with total page 127 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The purpose of the book is to investigate parliaments’ capacity to oversee government activities, policies and budget legislation. By analysing the survey data that the World Bank Institute in collaboration with the Inter-Parliamentary Union collected from 120 parliaments, Pelizzo and Stapenhurst show what tools are available to parliaments worldwide, which tools are more or less common, how oversight capacity can be estimated, how oversight capacity is related to other institutional and constitutional factors. In addition to discussing the conditions under which oversight capacity is greater, the authors perform some analyses to assess the policy implications of oversight capacity. Specifically, they look at the impact of oversight capacity on the quality of democracy and on the level of good governance.

Download or read book Perspectives on the Legislature and the Prospects of Accountability in Nigeria and South Africa written by Omololu Fagbadebo and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-08-17 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the problem of accountability in two African political systems, South Africa and Nigeria. Despite the principle of separation of powers and the doctrine of checks and balances among the institutions of governance, a burgeoning governance crisis stifles the potential of accountability and good governance. Legislative oversight in the two countries remains largely ineffective while citizens are left to face the consequences of the mismanagement of public resources by political elites. This book critically assesses how the legislative institutions in South Africa and Nigeria have been unable to harness the requisite constitutional powers to ensure accountability in government and explores the feasibility of their effectiveness. The book begins with a comparative analysis of the principles, tradition, and powers associated with legislative capability in South Africa and Nigeria. The chapters explore constitutional provisions and analyze the capacity of each legislature to function within its respective political environment. The book also examines the process and challenges associated with the various measures and mechanisms available for legislatures to ensure accountability in the two countries. Researchers, scholars and students of African politics will find this book useful in their understanding of the problems associated with the simmering governance crisis in South Africa and Nigeria.

Download or read book The Politics of Accountability in the Modern State written by Matthew V. Flinders and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 436 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Mason s Manual of Legislative Procedure written by Paul Mason and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 804 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Handbook for Constitutional Decisions in State Legislatures written by Dennis Aubuchon and published by Blurb. This book was released on 2019-02-07 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Decisions are made by state legislatures each day but do they conform to their state constitution and the United States Constitution. Decisions can be constitutional but state legislatures must ask themselves whether the decisions should be made and are they the right decision for the issue

Download or read book The Independent State Legislature in Republican Theory written by Franita Tolson and published by . This book was released on 2022 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The independent state legislature theory provides that state legislatures are not constrained by their respective state constitutions in exercising the authority that the U.S. Constitution delegates to states over federal elections. In its most extreme form, the doctrine permits state legislatures, in overseeing the mechanics of federal elections, to disregard state court interpretations of state constitutions. Scholars have offered a number of criticisms of this doctrine, noting that it runs counter to the founding generation's concerns about the lawlessness of state legislatures; is contrary to historical practice at the founding; and undermines the constitutional structure in which the more democratically accountable Congress, rather than the states, is vested with final say over federal elections.This Essay, forthcoming in a special Texas A&M Law Review symposium issue celebrating Professor Richard Epstein, contributes to this growing literature by pointing to the constraints, centered in the constitutional text and history, that limit the ability of legislatures to disregard their state constitutions. Specifically, the Electors Clause of Article II, Section 1 provides that, “Each state shall appoint, in such manner as the legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives to which the state may be entitled in the Congress...” This text explicitly raises the question of who is the “state” on behalf of which the legislature deploys power? Using this language as its jumping off point, this Essay argues that the “state” referenced in Article II, Section 1 refers to its citizens, whose preferences are conveyed to the state legislature through the state's electorate and in the state constitution. Within a decade of the founding, the selection of officials by the state's electorate became central to the theory of republicanism underlying the Guarantee Clause of Article IV, which predicated the legitimacy of government on majority support. By the adoption of the Twelfth Amendment, which changed the structure of presidential elections, political elites viewed republican government as requiring that state legislatures and, to a lesser extent, federal officials, be accountable to the people who elected them, accountability that prevented state legislatures from exercising their authority over federal elections in blatant disregard of the people's wishes. The Essay concludes that the independent state legislature theory, particularly in its strongest iteration, runs counter to the democratizing effect that the Twelfth Amendment was intended to have on presidential elections. The theory allows the state legislature to disregard the preferences of the people at a juncture in which they are exercising the oversight and accountability at the core of our system of republicanism: during the election of federal officials. Any version of the doctrine, if adopted, has to respect majoritarian preferences.

Download or read book On Behalf of Our Nation s State Legislatures written by National Conference of State Legislatures and published by . This book was released on with total page 29 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Term Limits in State Legislatures written by John M. Carey and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 2000-04-06 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It has been predicted that term limits in state legislatures--soon to be in effect in eighteen states--will first affect the composition of the legislatures, next the behavior of legislators, and finally legislatures as institutions. The studies in Term Limits in State Legislatures demonstrate that term limits have had considerably less effect on state legislatures than proponents predicted. The term-limit movement--designed to limit the maximum time a legislator can serve in office--swept through the states like wildfire in the first half of the 1990s. By November 2000, state legislators will have been "term limited out" in eleven states. This book is based on a survey of nearly 3,000 legislators from all fifty states along with intensive interviews with twenty-two legislative leaders in four term-limited states. The data were collected as term limits were just beginning to take effect in order to capture anticipatory effects of the reform, which set in as soon as term limit laws were passed. In order to understand the effects of term limits on the broader electoral arena, the authors also examine data on advancement of legislators between houses of state legislatures and from the state legislatures to Congress. The results show that there are no systematic differences between term limit and non-term limit states in the composition of the legislature (e.g., professional backgrounds, demographics, ideology). Yet with respect to legislative behavior, term limits decrease the time legislators devote to securing pork and heighten the priority they place on the needs of the state and on the demands of conscience relative to district interests. At the same time, with respect to the legislature as an institution, term limits appear to be redistributing power away from majority party leaders and toward governors and possibly legislative staffers. This book will be of interest both to political scientists, policymakers, and activists involved in state politics. John M. Carey is Assistant Professor of Political Science, Washington University in St. Louis. Richard G. Niemi is Professor of Political Science, University of Rochester. Lynda W. Powell is Professor of Political Science, University of Rochester.

Download or read book Engines of Democracy written by Alan Rosenthal and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 466 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: State legislators have often been in the shadow of their national counterparts, but they drive the processes of democracy. Rosenthal brings together a lifetime of research and experience on state legislative politics into one eminently readable volume. Building on earlier work with new data and recent interviews and observations, Rosenthal looks at the way representation works, American's critical view of their legislatures, the role of legislative leaders, the dynamics of executive-legislative relationships, as well as norms and ethics.