State Legislatures Today: Politics under the Domes

by Peverill Squire, Gary Moncrief

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.

Genres: Politics

280 pages, Paperback

First published September 25, 2009

About the author

Peverill Squire is the Hicks and Martha Griffiths Chair in American Political Institutions at the University of Missouri, a political scientist well known for his work on legislative institutions, with specific focus on state legislatures. He has written, or co-authored, over 87 unique publications in the form of article and book chapters. He graduated in 1986 with a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. Currently he lives in Columbia, Missouri with his wife and dog, Csilla which is Hungarian for star.

Reviews

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Over the past two weeks, I skimmed through this book for my class on state politics. I wish I had more time to read it thoroughly, but overall, I thought it provided a good introduction to the formulation and operation of state legislatures. There was a lot I already knew because of my experience interning at the Maryland General Assembly, however, there was also a lot I was unaware of. It was particularly interesting to learn about the differences between state legislatures, for instance, how Nebraska has a unicameral legislature and how their elections are nonpartisan. It makes me contemplate on certain elements of state government and how they could be improved - something I never seriously questioned before.

[Frank Stein · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an important reminder of the possibilities and diversities in American government. Almost everything you think of as crucial or essential about American government has its exception in some of the states. Although this book can sometimes seem like mere lists of such exceptions or divergences, the lists show that there are endless possibilities.

For instance, Nebraska is noted for its unicameral legislature, created at the behest of Senator George Norris in 1937 to end the supposed corruption of conference committees. But some early colonial legislatures were unicameral and Vermont's unicameral one didn't disappear until 1836. Nebraska's legislature is also exceptional in being nonpartisan, but Minnesota's was from 1914 to 1973. For awhile many chambers had solely joint committees, until it led people to question the necessity for dual houses. Yet Maine, Massachusetts, and Conneticut still rely on them.

Today 10 lower houses and 2 upper houses have multi-member districts. As recently as 1962 they were used in 41 lower houses and 30 upper houses. Research shows that lawmakers in these districts treat their job more as trustees than as delegates of particular district views, have more ideological diversity, less incumbency advantage, and yet they bring home more government money to their district. By contrast, state legislative caucuses have gotten weaker. Most of the strong ones disappeared in the 1980s, but some, such as New Mexico and Oklahoma, still make their party votes binding on members (Colorado voters passed an amendment in 1988 outlawing the practice.)

The numbers of legislators in different chambers has a real impact. The size of chambers in states range from 20 members in the Alaska senate to 400 in the New Hampshire House. Despite a large increase in population in the last 50 years, many states have been reducing their size. New Hampshire's was 443 in 1942, Rhode Island cut both its chambers by a quarter in 2003. Also, unlike Congress, 60 state chambers have an even number of seats. Since 1966, more than 41 chambers have been tied at some point; Washington's House three times.

The authors pair these historical and tabular statistics with contemporary studies of impact. For instance, studies show that a House with more members than its paired chamber enjoys more information expertise and thereby confers policymaking advantages. Studies also have shown that party caucuses are more important in small chambers and leadership in large chambers. Surprisingly, unlike the US House and Senate, there is no relationship between the size of chambers and the rigidity of rules, but neither is their any relationship between size of state population and size of their chambers.

States differ, and have changed, in everything from length of terms (New Jersey was the last to go to 2 years in their lower house in 1947, which studies show ironically leads to lower-reelection rates for longer terms), to term limits (15 states have kept them since Colorado, Oklahoma, and Colorado first passed them in 1990), time and shape of primaries (half are "open" half are closed, and five Eastern states wait until September to hold them, which gives more advantage to strong party organizations), compensation (New Hampshire's $100 a year salary was set by a 1889 constitutional amendment, while 20 states have "compensation commissions" to decide, but even those differ whether or not legislatures have to take action to agree to them), and so forth. Yes, these divergences can get tedious, but, tied into the research the authors bring to bear, they show the importance of institutional structure on outcomes. They also show how much most of us need to learn about our state governments.

[Steven Peterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

To understand the legislative process in the United States, one cannot just study Congress. Each state has its own legislature, and one needs an understanding of these for a complete picture. There are many fascinating tidbits in this book--From 1993-2003, there is almost an incomprehensibly high percentage of incumbents re-elected to state legislatures. From a high of 98.1% in New York to a "low" of 84.4% in Louisiana. In short, incumbents don't normally get defeated!

The book covers the standard elements for a perspective on state legislatures. Chapters focus on such matters as: The nature and history of state legislatures; campaigns and elections for legislative seats; the job of the legislator--and changes over time; legislative organization (leadership structures and committees); how decisions get made and laws passed; the variety of actors that state legislatures must reckon with (e.g., the governor, bureaucracy, courts, public opinion, interest groups, and the like). The book concludes with a chapter on how representative state legislatures actually are.

Some nice features: case studies in each chapter (e.g., in the chapter on the job of the state legislator today is a tale of Pennsylvania's pay raise disaster). The book is well written. There are summary tables that help make sense of the chapters.

All in all, a good work. I may well adopt this as a textbook when I next teach Legislative Politics and Process.

[Kurt Couchman · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's an excellent overview of the diversity in state legislatures. It is unfortunately rather light on budget rules and systems, despite passing a budget every year or two being the most important regular legislative action. The National Association of State Budget Officers publishes reports to fill most of those gaps, however. Overall highly recommended as an intro to state legislatures to provide a foundation for engaging in one or several of them in more depth.

[Joshua Parker · Rating 3 out of 5]

15% of eligible voters typically vote in state elections… great job guys….