Chapter 7

"State Legislatures"

Learning Objectives

After reading this chapter, students should be able to understand:

1. The legislative functions of policymaking, representation, and oversight.

2. The ideals and reality of legislative reform efforts in the recent past, how they have changed the legislative membership, and the genesis of present efforts to institute term limits.

3. The history of drawing legislative districts and the effects of recent court decisions.

4. The basic structure of state legislatures, their leadership, and their committee makeup.

5. The motives for legislative behavior.

6. How a bill becomes law in state legislatures.

7. The nature of executive-legislative relations in the states.

8. The concept of legislative oversight and the tools available to legislatures to control executive agencies.

9. The current issues that the nation’s state legislatures are facing.

I. Opening Vignette: Tough Times in Tallahassee

II. Introduction

III. State Legislatures—the basics

a. Bicameralism

b. Single vs. Multimember districts

c. Legislative professionalism

IV. State Legislative Elections

a. The paradox of competition in state legislative elections

b. Party, incumbency, and voting decisions in state legislative elections

c. State legislative redistricting

i. One person, one vote

ii. Drawing new districts

d. Revisiting the paradox of competition in state legislative elections

V. State legislatures—who are they?

a. Women in the state legislature

b. Racial and ethnic minorities in the state legislature

c. The impact of broader representation

VI. The job of the state legislature

a. Lawmaking

b. Overseeing the executive branch

c. Representation

VII. The collective action problem

a. Committees

b. Party caucuses

c. Legislative leadership

VIII. Summary

Learning Objectives

After finishing this chapter, each student should be able to:

	Understand and explain the difference between bicameralism and unicameralism
	Understand and explain the paradox of competition in state legislative elections.
	Understand and explain the difference between an SMD and an MMD and why this distinction matters for understanding representation.
	Understand and explain the incumbency advantage in state legislatures.
	Understand and explain what redistricting is and what effect it has on legislative representation.
	Describe about how many women are in the state legislature and explain what factors lead to the representation of more women.
	Describe about how many racial minorities are in the state legislature and explain what factors lead to the representation of more racial minorities.
	Understand and explain the three basic duties of a state legislator
	Understand and explain how legislators overcome the collective action problem
	Understand and explain what legislative professionalism is and how it affects political outcomes.
	Understand and explain what term limits are and how they affect political outcomes.