Legislatures In The United States Research Paper

1. What Functions Do Legislatures Perform?

Legislatures perform three major functions in the political systems of their states: representing constituencies, lawmaking, and balancing power.

1.1 Representing Constituencies

The predominant responsibility of legislatures is that of representation, primarily of individuals and groups within the states. Individual legislators see themselves as representatives of their districts. While districts within states have the same number of people, districts vary in size among the 50 states. Legislators may represent as many as 796,956 people, as the 40 senators in California do, or as few as 3,924 as some of the 150 representatives in Vermont do.

One of the important jobs of senators and representatives is to provide service to constituencies and constituents—responding to people’s requests for help, doing case work, and taking care of the district’s interests with respect to state-aid formulas and local projects. Representation requires that organized groups and individual citizens have access to members, to committees, and to the legislative process generally to make known their views. The legislature is attentive, and on major issues, responsive to what people in a district and in the state want. On very few issues do a majority of constituents feel strongly on one side or the other. On those issues it is likely that the legislator feels similarly. Whatever the legislator’s views, where there seems to be a mandate in the constituency, legislators will be inclined to go along with it as ‘delegates’ elected to carry out the will of the people. On the large majority of issues, however, relatively few constituents have views and legislators respond mainly to organized interest groups in the constituency as well as to other influences. On such issues legislators can act as ‘trustees,’ according to their own views of the issue and political situation.

1.2 Lawmaking

Overlapping representation are a number of activities the focus of which is primarily internal. The legislative role in formulating, reviewing, and adopting a state budget has special significance in the process of making laws, since the budget is probably the most important bill (or bills) that a legislature passes. The lawmaking process itself is characterized by organized interest groups and their lobbyists and by scattered individuals, who offer diverse perspectives and positions on the issues in question.

Deliberation is an important feature of lawmaking in legislatures. It involves a give-and-take and an exchange of information and ideas. It is a vital element of committee Activity, but it also goes on in leadership conferences, and informal exchanges among members. Building consensus on a bill requires more than the efficacy of deliberation; it also requires the willingness of opposing sides to enter into a bargaining process whereby they try to resolve their differences—through dealing, trading, and compromise. Sometimes one side wins decisively and the other loses decisively, but the overwhelming majority of laws enacted by a legislature are settled by means of building consensus—within a legislative party, within a legislative chamber and with the other legislative house.

1.3 Balancing Power

Constitutionally, legislatures are designated as the first branch of government and the executive as the second branch. American state legislatures, unlike parliamentary bodies or many American city councils, are relatively independent of executives and participate coequally in lawmaking for the state. Although most budgets are formulated by the executive branch and nearly all governors can veto line-item appropriations, legislatures are instrumental in deciding on spending priorities for the state and allocating funds for state agencies and state programs. Governors have a lot to say over the legislature’s agenda of major issues and can veto legislative enactments; yet, the legislature’s cooperation is necessary if a major law is to be adopted.

2. What Factors Play A Role In The Performance Of Legislatures?

American state legislatures can be differentiated on a number of dimensions, each of which helps shape the legislature’s performance of its three major functions.

2.1 Legislative Structures

With the exception of Nebraska, each state legislature is bicameral, with a senate and a house. Bills must be enacted by both bodies before they are sent to the governor for signature, or possibly veto. Senates are smaller in size than houses, normally with only one-third to one-half as many members. Senates range from Minnesota’s 67-member body to Alaska’s 20-member body. The largest house, in New Hampshire, has 400 members, while the smallest, in Alaska, has 40. The principal working groups of state legislatures are standing committees, which have responsibility for particular policy domains—such as education, health, welfare, and transportation—and for revenues and expenditures. Committees enable a senate or house to divide labor, allow members to specialize, and provide for a more thorough review of legislative proposals than could be done on the floor of the chamber.

2.2 Legislative Capacity

The quantity and quality of resources available to the legislature to perform its functions are important. A number of elements signify a legislature’s capacity. The amount of time, both during the formal session and during the period between sessions (the interim), matters. With 44 of the 50 state legislatures meeting annually, sessions vary in length from those that run only 20 or 30 days to those that run for most of the year. California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, and Pennsylvania are virtually full time, while Arkansas, North Dakota, and Wyoming are very part time. Another aspect of capacity is professional staff. The organization and size of legislative staffs range greatly. In some states staff tend to be centralized in one non-partisan agency (as in Kentucky and Ohio); in other states staff is decentralized— divided between the senate and house and among legislative parties and standing committees. The most populous states with full-time legislatures (like California and New York) have the largest staffs, while the least populous states with very part-time legislatures (like Delaware and Wyoming) have the smallest staffs. Additional resources employed by legislatures include facilities, technology, and the amount of money budgeted for the legislative operation as a whole. Whether a legislature is more or less professional depends largely on its capacity to do its job.

2.3 Legislative Members

The total number of legislators in the 50 states is 7,425. Members of senates generally serve four-year terms, while members of houses generally serve two-year terms. In 19 states legislators are limited to six, eight, or twelve years of service in the senate or house. Term limits were adopted by the initiative process (or by threat of the initiative) in 20 states and by the legislature itself in another state, but were thrown out by the courts in three. Most members in most states are ‘citizen’ legislators, who supplement modest public salaries with income earned in private employment— as attorneys, business persons, teachers, farmers, etc. Large proportions of legislators aspire to careers in politics, working their way through leadership chairs in the state senate or house or running for Congress or statewide office. Relatively few incumbents leave voluntarily (excluding those who run for higher office) and relatively few who stand for re-election are defeated.

2.4 Legislative Parties

Parties are of little importance in the Nebraska legislature, which is not only unicameral but is also officially nonpartisan, and in legislatures that are controlled overwhelmingly by one party or the other. Otherwise, parties play a significant role. About two-thirds of the 99 legislative chambers are competitive, in that both the Democrats and the Republicans have held the majority in recent years and/or have a prospect of winning a majority in the near future. (This competition at the chamber level exists despite the fact that anywhere from two to four out of five senate and house districts are reasonably safe for either Democrats or Republicans.) The majority party in a legislative body normally exercises predominant control. In the lawmaking process, the minority can choose either to work with the majority in an effort to shape the legislative product or challenge the majority in an effort to create issues on which to contest the forthcoming election. Where the legislative parties are most competitive partisanship is likely to be strongest. The legislative parties employ caucuses or conferences of members, which meet during the session on an occasional basis, weekly, or every day just before the senate or house convenes.

In about three-quarters of the states the legislative parties are not only involved in governance through their influence on the lawmaking process, but are also involved in campaigns for the election of candidates to the legislature. The parties and legislative party leaders raise funds and allocate them to incumbents and challengers, who face contests in the most competitive districts. Although campaigns remain candidate-centered and local, the legislative parties exercise a centralizing influence. All of this increases partisanship in the legislature.

2.5 Legislative Leaders

The top leaders in a legislative body are the speaker of the house and the president, president pro tem, or in a few cases majority leader of the senate. The presiding officers of the body are elected by the entire membership, although the majority party candidate normally wins. Other leaders are appointed by top leaders or are selected by the party caucuses.

Legislative leaders have a number of responsibilities. First, they build consensus within their party or in the chamber as a whole in order to pass legislation and serve the interests of their partisan or chamber members. Second, they negotiate with the other house and with the executive so that legislation can proceed from passage in one chamber to enactment in law. Third, they organize their chamber, appointing members to committees and designating committee chairs. Fourth, they exercise control of the agenda and the flow of bills to the floor. Fifth, they preside over floor sessions. Sixth, they manage, or oversee the management of, the senate or house and of joint facilities. Seventh, they minister to members who need help with their bills, assistance for their districts, appointments for constituents, or other kinds of assistance. Eighth, they represent the chamber in dealings with the media. Ninth, they help their party’s incumbents get re-elected and support their party’s challengers to the opposition.

Today few leaders exercise the power of their predecessors. Leaders no longer have a monopoly on information or staff and members are less willing to follow leadership. Legislative leadership nowadays is more a matter of helping the membership develop consensus on where it wants to go than of getting the membership to go where their leaders want to go.

2.6 Legislative Institutionalism

A combination of factors define the institutionalism of legislatures. First is concern, which has to do with a sense of, identification with, or dedication to the legislature. Members who care about the legislature’s well being and who engage in institution-building activities (and do not engage in activities that are institutionally harmful) foster institutionalism. Second is community, which encompasses the culture and norms of the legislature and requires some level of agreement on the need for civility and some manifestation of collegiality. Third is continuity, which not only provides for greater knowledge and skill on the parts of lawmakers but also promotes institutional values. Fourth is autonomy, which requires that legislatures be insulated, at least to some extent, from the environment and that they have substantial control over essentially internal processes.

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