Lecture Notes- Legislature

Functions of State Legislatures

• Enacting laws: Collectively consider 101,000 per session, pass about 19,000

• Considering constitutional amendments, gubernatorial appointments, and

state courts: Often shared processes

• Approving budgets: May be single most important function

• Serving constituents: Requires great deal of legislators’ time

• Overseeing state agencies: Frequently need to challenge state

administrators

Texas State Legislature

• Biennial session (140 days every two years)

• 31 Senators

• 150 Representatives

Making of a State Legislator

State legislators are typically selected from the upper-middle-

class segments of the population

• Occupation: Groups with flexible work responsibility or retired

persons; lawyers, business owners, physicians

• Education: Most are college educated

• Age: Average is 56 years

• Personal wealth: Recruited from affluent families

• Lawyers: Trained to deal with public policy

• Amateurs: Most state legislatures are part-time bodies

Legislative Apportionment and Disctricing

• The Impact of Reapportionment

• Districting: Partisan and Incumbent Gerrymandering

• The Seats-Votes Relationship

• Affirmative Racial Gerrymandering

• Multimember Districts: electoral districts that elect two or more represenattves to a legislative bod, rahen than a single and yhey can diminish direct accountability of individual representatives to consituents

• District Size within 10% of every other district

• Who Draws the Lines? State Legislature

• How Often to Redistrict? once every 10 years

Legislative Committees

• Functions: Most chambers will have 20 to 30 standing

committees

• Personnel: Assignment typically made by leadership, with occupational background a factor

• Committee preferences: Generally reflect preferences of the chamber

State Legislatures: A Critical Assessment

• State legislatures are not popular with the American people.

• Despite institutional reforms of the past decades, higher salaries, more professional legislators, longer sessions, increased staff and better resources, legislatures haven’t improved their standing with the American people.

• The public’s disdain may be part of the popular cynicism for politics generally.