Legislative Calendars and Workload Management in Texas
There is a well-developed normative model of how state legislatures ought to use calendars to make the management of their workloads more efficient. State legislatures that follow the normative model identify more and less important bills. Presumably, major and minor bills are treated differently--but are they? This study desegregates the agenda of the Texas Legislature into unimportant, less important, and more important bills as defined by bill placement on calendars. There are systematic differences in the way bills of varying importance are treated. Moreover, the differences are consistent with the contention that calendars can facilitate the more efficient management of legislative workloads.
Setting the Senate Apart : Institutional Variation and Political Career Patterns in the State Legislatures
State legislators routinely run for the state Senate after having served in the state House; however, this rarely occurs in the other order. Do members simply look to move up based on the conventional view of the political ambition ladder? Alternatively, do institutional reasons exist that make the Senate the preferred chamber? I examine the differences between the state legislative chambers and discuss institutional reasons why members may prefer the Senate to the House. Overall, I find chamber size is an important intra-institutional variable in explaining this variation along with the professionalism of the legislatures and term limits.
Legislators' Perceptions of Reform in Three States
This study, based on surveys of legislators in South Dakota, Texas, and Kentucky, measures the members' perceptions of the goals of reforms adopted a few years ago in the legislatures of these states. It shows that there are large differences among members in their perception of goals—differences not generally explained by party or faction, members' status (chairmanships), or seniority. Reforms are more likely to be associated with transitive than with reflective goals; that is, they are related to the legislature and its environment and are not internally oriented.