Legislative Quality in the American States

• In Event: Poster Session: Comparative Politics II & State Politics and Policy
  In Poster Session: Poster Session: State Politics and Policy

Abstract

Contemporary theories of legislative policymaking incorporate two features of proposals. First, their ideological, spatial location, and, second, their valence or quality. These theories generally predict that higher quality proposals will attract more support from legislators, independent of their spatial location. We propose a method for measuring the valence of bills directly using automated content analysis. A bill’s valence is captured in three parts. First, by its adherence to generally accepted stylistic guidelines. Second, by its relative political sophistication, which we propose to measure using the method introduced by Benoit, Munger, and Spirling (2018) and test against other common methods. And, third, by its clarity and readability. We measure the valence of bills across several states, and provide new evidence for the effect of term limits, professionalization, polarization, and interest group activity, as well as individual legislator experience and extremism, on legislative quality.

Authors

• Matthew P. Hitt, Colorado State University

• Josh McCrain, Emory University