Institutions and Representation in State Legislative Politics

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

At the core of the study of legislative politics in the United States is the quality of representation that citizens receive from their elected officials. Regardless of the specific institutions—electoral, legislative, or otherwise—and no matter the stage of the legislative process, the translation of citizen preferences and interests into public policy, through legislative representatives, lies at the core of the study of American legislative politics. Given the institutional richness found within the 50 U.S. state governments, scholars have increasingly turned to the states and their ninety-nine legislative chambers to test the relationship between political institutions and legislative representation. The papers in this panel make rich use of these theoretical and empirical opportunities. In “Legislative Transparency and Fiscal Responsibility,” Harden and co-authors take advantage of cross-sectional and temporal variation in legislative exposure to “sunshine” laws to evaluate the representational consequences for state fiscal health. Similarly, Crosson builds on recent research linking legislative capacity and negative economic outcomes in “Capacity for Conflict,” investigating whether professional legislatures’ capacity to organize for electoral and messaging purposes—rather than for policymaking—explains why professionalization of legislatures may lead to greater credit risk. In “Capacity, Term Limits and Group Influence,” Garlick and Kroeger draw on a sudden decline in the California Assembly’s legislative capacity to evaluate the agenda-setting power of interest groups. Finally, Olson draws on historical data from the state legislatures of the U.S. South in "Legislative Consequences of Black Disfranchisement in the U.S. South, 1880-1915" to identify the effect of racial franchise restrictions on legislative roll call voting. Despite these studies’ diverse settings, differing institutional focuses, and alternative emphases in the voter-legislator relationship, they are joined by a creative use of state-level data to better understand the way that American representative democracy does or does not serve its constituents.

Sub Unit

• DIVISION 29: State Politics and Policy

Individual Presentations

• Legislative Transparency and Fiscal Responsibility: Evidence from the States - Jeffrey J. Harden, University of Notre Dame; Justin Kirkland, University of Virginia; Patrick E. Shea, University of Houston

• Capacity for Conflict: On the Link between Professionalism and Fiscal Health - Jesse M. Crosson, Princeton University and Trinity University

• Capacity, Term Limits and Group Influence: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from CA - Alex Garlick, The College of New Jersey; Mary Kroeger, University of Rochester

• Legislative Consequences of Black Disfranchisement in the US South, 1880-1915 - Michael Olson, Harvard University

Chair

• Alexander Fouirnaies University of Chicago

Discussants

• Andrew B. Hall Stanford University

• Tessa Provins University of Pittsburgh