Showing papers on "Legislature published in 1993"

Protecting soldiers and mothers : the political origins of social policy in the United States

Abstract: It is generally believed that the United States lagged behind the countries of Western Europe in developing modern social policies. But, as Theda Skocpol shows in this historical analysis, the United States actually pioneered generous social spending for many of its elderly, disabled and dependent citizens. During the late 19th century, competitive party politics in American democracy led to the rapid expansion of benefits for Union Civil War veterans and their families. Some Americans hoped to expand veterans' benefits into pensions for all of the needy elderly and social insurance for workingmen and their families. But such hopes went against the logic of political reform in the Progressive era. Generous social spending faded along with the Civil War generation. Instead, the U.S. nearly became a unique maternalist welfare state as the federal government and more than 40 states enacted social spending, labour regulations, and health education programmes to assist American mothers and children. As Skocpol shows, many of these policies were enacted even before American women were granted the right to vote. Banned from electoral politics, they turned their energies to creating huge, nation-spanning federations of women's clubs, which collaborated with reform-minded professional women to spur legislative action across the country. Blending original historical research with political analysis, Skocpol shows how governmental institutions, electoral rules, political parties and earlier public policies combined to determine both the opportunities and the limits within which social policies were devised and changed by reformers and politically active social groups over the course of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Legislative Leviathan: Party Government in the House

Abstract: This book provides an incisive new look at the inner workings of the House of Representatives in the post-World War II era. Reevaluating the role of parties and committees, Gary Cox and Mathew McCubbins view parties in the House - especially majority parties - as a species of 'legislative cartel.' These cartels usurp the power, theoretically resident in the House, to make rules governing the structure and process of legislation. Possession of this rule-making power leads to two main consequences. First, the legislative process in general, and the committee system in particular, is stacked in favor of majority party interests. Second, because the majority party has all the structural advantages, the key players in most legislative deals are members of that party and the majority party's central agreements are facilitated by cartel rules and policed by the cartel's leadership. Debunking prevailing arguments about the weakening of congressional parties, Cox and McCubbins powerfully illuminate the ways in which parties exercise considerable discretion in organizing the House to carry out its work. This work will have an important impact on the study of American politics, and will greatly interest students of Congress, the presidency, and the political party system.

The Nonmajoritarian Difficulty: Legislative Deference to the Judiciary

Abstract: Theoretical and descriptive studies of the Supreme Court exhibit a curious parallel. Both usually begin from the premise that judicial review is “a deviant institution in a democratic society.” Much normative work claims that independent judicial policymaking is rarely legitimate in a democracy because, with few exceptions, elected officials rather than appointed judges should resolve social controversies. In a frequently cited passage, Alexander Bickel asserts that the Supreme Court is “a counter-majoritarian force” in our system of government. Much empirical work, by comparison, insists that independent judicial policymaking seldom takes place in a democracy because, with few exceptions, judges appointed and confirmed by elected officials sustain whatever social policies are enacted by the dominant national coalition. Robert Dahl observes that it is “unrealistic to suppose that a Court whose members are recruited in the fashion of Supreme Court justices would long hold to norms of Right or Justice substantially at odds with the rest of the political elite.”

Professionalization and Public Opinion of State Legislatures

Abstract: Using a seven-state survey I examine how closely people follow the activities of the state legislature, how much contact they have with its members, and how they evaluate its performance. In particular, I investigate whether legislative professionalization level or district size influences how people see their legislature. Professionalization has a positive relationship with contact but has a negative relationship with attention level and performance rating. Constituency size exhibits little influence except on contacts.

Presidential Support in Congress: Conflict and Consensus on Foreign and Defense Policy

Abstract: In a recent article appearing in The Journal of Politics, McCormick and Wittkopf (1990) argue that the Vietnam War did not exercise a significant impact on bipartisan presidential support in the U.S. Congress and that a bipartisan Cold War consensus on foreign policy and defense issues in the House and Senate was not as prominent as many had assumed. I develop a comprehensive model of bipartisan congressional support of presidents from 1947-1988 on foreign policy and defense roll-call votes in the House and Senate that test the impact of many factors, such as presidential influence and legislative processes not accounted for in McCormick and Wittkopf's analysis. Using probit analysis of individual roll-call votes, I show that before the Vietnam War, substantial consensus existed in both the House and Senate and after this conflict, such consensus has become much more infrequent. In addition, I find that forces originating in Congress exercise much more influence over the incidence of bipartisan support than presidential resources.

Women in national legislatures

Abstract: This study tests macrostructural theories of gender stratification by examining women's representation in national legislatures. Political structural variables are combined with the variables suggested by the propositions of Janet Chafetz and Rae Blumberg. Both developed and developing nations are represented in the data set of 73 countries. The most important finding for theory is that women's rate of labor force participation is a powerful predictor of women's political status.

Private Lives and Public Policies: Confidentiality and Accessibility of Government Statistics

Abstract: Americans are increasingly concerned about the privacy of personal data--yet we demand more and more information for public decision making. This volume explores the seeming conflicts between privacy and data access, an issue of concern to federal statistical agencies collecting the data, research organizations using the data, and individuals providing the data. A panel of experts offers principles and specific recommendations for managing data and improving the balance between needed government use of data and the privacy of respondents. The volume examines factors such as the growth of computer technology, that are making confidentiality an increasingly critical problem. The volume explores how data collectors communicate with data providers, with a focus on informed consent to use data, and describes the legal and ethical obligations data users have toward individual subjects as well as toward the agencies providing the data. In the context of historical practices in the United States, Canada, and Sweden, statistical techniques for protecting individuals' identities are evaluated in detail. Legislative and regulatory restraints on access to data are examined, including a discussion about their effects on research. This volume will be an important and thought-provoking guide for policymakers and agencies working with statistics as well as researchers and concerned individuals.

Annual Report, 1993-1994

Abstract: The South Carolina State Accident Fund reports to the Governor and Legislature its annual report with information on operations, functions, duties, and organization.

The Legislative Veto: Invalidated, It Survives

Abstract: In INS v. Chadha,' the Supreme Court invoked a strained theory of separation of powers to strike down Congress's use of a "legislative veto," a device used for a half century to control the executive branch. Through the use of the legislative veto, Congress delegated power to the executive branch on the condition that Congress could control executive decisions without having to pass another law. These legislative controls, short of a public law, included one-house vetoes, two-house vetoes, and even committee vetoes. Congressional actions by a legislative veto were not presented to the President for his signature or veto. It may appear that this procedure thrust Congress unfairly (or even unconstitutionally) into administrative decisions that should have been left to executive officials; the initiative for the legislative veto came from President Hoover, however, and executive officials tolerated the arrangement for decades because it was in their interest. By attaching the safeguard of a legislative veto, Congress was willing to delegate greater discretion and authority to the executive branch. If Congress failed to invoke the legislative veto, the executive branch could, in effect, "make law" without further congressional involvement. The experiment with the legislative veto lasted for five decades before it was invalidated by the Supreme Court in 1983. In response to Chadha, Congress eliminated the legislative veto from a number of statutes. The legislative veto continues to thrive, however, as a practical accommodation between executive agencies and congressional committees. More than two hundred new legislative vetoes have been enacted since Chadha. In addition, legislative vetoes of an informal and nonstatutory nature continue to define executive-legislative relations. The meaning of constitutional law in this area is evidently determined more by pragmatic agreements hammered out between the elected branches than by doctrines announced by the Supreme Court. The next part of this article explicates the Court's decision in Chadha. Part III discusses the origins of the legislative veto and its traditional place in the

The Challenge of Strategic Management in Local Government

Abstract: INTRODUCTION Strategic management of public organizations has been one of the "hottest" topics of the past decade both in academia and in public management practice (Bozeman, 1983; Bryson, 1989; Denhardt, 1983; Eadie and Steinbacher, 1985; Olsen and Eadie, 1982; Ring and Perry, 1985; Wechsler and Backoff, 1986). For the most part, the burgeoning strategic management literature has not been sufficiently attentive to the challenge of applying strategic management at specific levels of government. (For exceptions see, Bryson and Roering, 1988; Gargan, 1989; Halachmi, 1986; Swanstrom, 1986; Wechsler, 1989.) There are good reasons however, to expect considerable variation across sectors, between levels of government, and among agencies (Allison, 1983; Bozeman, 1987; Fottler, 1982; Rainey et al., 1976; Ring and Perry, 1985). If we are to be successful in transferring concepts developed in the private sector to public management, then it would be useful to examine the nature of expected variations and explore their implications for organizations and managers. Although there is considerable merit in studying large populations of organizations along comparative dimensions, the authors have chosen an alternative, but equally useful, approach in which a more narrowly circumscribed organization type is examined intensively. In this article, the authors focus on the agencies of general purpose local governments. While this label captures a diverse set of agencies (including public works, police and fire, social services, etc.) with distinct policy and management agendas, the institutional and political context of local government is the driving strategic factor for entire populations of organizations. In the following sections, the authors explore the challenge of strategic management in agencies of local government and highlight the importance of the institutional and operating environment. Specifically, they focus on external political dependency as a crucial factor affecting strategic management in local government agencies. They also give consideration to the range of strategies available to agencies for managing their political dependencies. AGENCIES OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT There is a wide variety of organizational types in the public sector, including executive branch agencies, legislative bodies, courts, independent commissions, and various public authorities. Executive branch agencies of local government, which are among the most numerous of organizational forms, are the principal units of analysis in this article. The authors hypothesize that the strategic behavior of agencies of general purpose local government will be quite different from that of other public organizations, private sector firms, and not-for-profit agencies. They believe that these differences stem from the institutional setting and context of local governments and the constraints and dependencies which are imposed on the agencies as a consequence. By examining this setting, they can obtain significant insights into the strategic behavior of this large class of public sector organizations. SETTING AND CONTEXT A variety of factors influence the strategic behavior of local government agencies and establish the challenging conditions of strategic management in local government. In the presentation below, these factors are grouped into the following categories: (1) origins and legal bases of government and its agencies; (2) goals and services of the agencies; (3) governmental control processes; and (4) financing and resource allocation mechanisms. Origins and Legal Bases. The general purpose local government is ultimately a creation of its citizens; citizens and the polity can be said to own the government and its sub-units. General purpose governments are established through the legal standing derived from a constitutional compact at the federal or state level. At the local level, governments derive their standing from state constitutions. …

The tobacco industry, state politics, and tobacco education in California.

Abstract: OBJECTIVES. Proposition 99 added 25 cents to the California state cigarette tax and mandated that 20% of the new revenues be spent on tobacco education and prevention programs. This paper examines the implementation of these programs and the tobacco industry's response to Proposition 99. METHODS. Political expenditure data for twelve tobacco firms and associations were gathered from California's Fair Political Practices Commission and secretary of state's Political Reform Division. Tobacco education expenditure data were collected from Governor's Budgets and the Department of Finance. RESULTS. Since Proposition 99 passed, tobacco industry political expenditures in California have risen 10-fold, from $790,050 in the 1985-1986 election to $7,615,091 in the 1991-1992 election. The tobacco industry is contributing more heavily to the California legislature than to Congress. A statistical analysis of data on campaign contributions indicates that California legislators' policy-making is influenced by campaign c...

Political Respect in the Legislature

Abstract: The legislature is a collective decision-making body in which patterns of interpersonal esteem or mutual respect provide a foundation for purposive action. We map the networks of legislators' choices of respected members among their colleagues, and then we elaborate and test a model of interpersonal respect. The coefficients in the model are estimated from data drawn from interviews in 1965 with Iowa state legislators. We demonstrate that respect rests largely upon performance, achievement, and formal position, that the bases of respect differ from those of political friendship in important ways, that Democrats and Republicans accord colleagues respect on the basis of different criteria, and that freshman and veteran members respond to different forces in nominating respected members. Contemporary accounts often portray collective decisionmaking bodies like legislatures as assemblies of rational actors, atomistically making decisions and calculations about the best avenues to reelection. Legislators are, without a doubt, rational actors, concerned with and often entirely motivated by the goal of reelection, but the emphasis on independent calculations discounts the interpersonal contingencies of legislative life. The legislature is a highly interactive collectivity. Its institutional life gravitates around two poles: one the nexus of the representative and the represented and the other the networks of affect and respect among legislators themselves. The internal ecology of the legislature may be noted for its conflict and cleavage, but coalitions are built not only from calculations of self-interest but also on the bases of trust, affection, and respect. Indeed, social networks and interpersonal bonds constitute crucial elements in the firm foundation of purposive action in legislatures. These ties increase certainty about the actions of others and generally decrease the costs of transactions (see for example Weingast 1979; see also Elster 1990;

Money and the Party Vote In State House Elections

Abstract: The research presented here is designed to answer some of the questions that remain regarding the impact of campaign expenditures on state legislative elections. Analysis of data from 12 states indicates that there is a significant relationship between campaign expenditures and the party vote in state house elections. The effect of expenditures conforms to the principle of diminishing marginal returns. The relationship, in several states, attains a level that make expenditures among the most important factors in state house races. Finally, the analysis uncovers both interstate and partisan differences in the importance of expenditures, a finding that opens up a whole new set of research questions. Because of low levels of voter information and interest, the lack of grassroots party organizations, the increased use of new and expensive campaign technology, and the increasing amount of money being spent to win legislative seats, it is reasonable to assume that campaign expenditures are an integral part of state legislative elections. Money buys access to voters. State legislative candidates who have money to spend are better able to affect the vote choice than are candidates for more visible offices (i.e., those that attract greater media attention) because they are not competing with conflicting information sources other than their opponent. The probable absence of free media time means that a candidate will get only the exposure that he or she pays for. Because voters are relatively poorly informed, they are unlikely to have as many predispositions in state legislative races as in more salient races, making it easier for candidates with money to influence their vote. The erosion of the political party as a voting cue and as an organization means that candidates have a better opportunity to reach more voters, but only if they have the finances to build

A contribution to the theory of pork barrel spending

Abstract: In this paper we present a formal model of vote trading within a legislature. The model captures the conventional wisdom that if projects with concentrated benefits are financed by universal taxation, then majority rule leads to excessive spending. This occurs because the proponent of a particular bill only needs to acquire the votes of half the legislature and hence internalizes the costs to only half the representatives. We show that Pareto superior allocations are difficult to sustain because of a free rider problem among the representatives. We show that alternative voting rules, such as unanimity, eliminate excessive spending on concentrated benefit projects but lead to underfunding of global public goods.

Do more Conservative States Impose Harsher Felony Sentences? An Exploratory Analysis of 32 States

Abstract: Felony sentencing is a state public policy outcome lying at the end of a long chain of decisions by legislatures, bureaucracies, and courts. Using data from the 1986 National Judicial Reporting Pro...

Review of Police Powers of Administrative Detention in the People's Republic of China

Abstract: This article illustrates the ways in which the legislative regimes for the imposition of sanctions of administrative detention give broad and vaguely defined powers to the police in the People's Republic of China. The research found that most legislation gave police wide discretion to exercise their powers and, in particular, to determine whether certain conduct merited the detention of the person. While processes to review such police actions have been legally established, they tend to be limited in scope. For the most part, the person aggrieved by the administrative action has limited capacity to require the review body to investigate or act upon their complaint.

Presidential power in post‐communist Europe: The Hungarian case in comparative perspective

Abstract: Presidencies in Eastern Europe and the successor states of the Soviet Union are a potential threat to stability: on the one hand they can be used in such a way as to increase conflict between the executive and legislative functions of government; on the other, they provide a possible means for the reestablishment of outright authoritarian rule. The presidential office can, however, serve a more positive role, helping to overcome political crises and providing national leadership. An examination of the sources of presidentialism in the Hungarian case and of the way in which the issue of the presidency has shaped political developments in that country, when viewed against experience in other countries of the region, indicates that the collapse of communism has created a political vacuum which strong presidences often arise to fill ‐ a political institution whose very attractions can also destabilize the political system as a whole.

Leaders, Politics and Institutional Change: The Decline of Prime Ministerial Accountability to the House of Commons, 1868–1990

Abstract: Political institutions are created in complex ways: by formal organisational arrangements, by conventions and agreements which surround and insulate these mechanics, by shared understandings and cognitions, and by emotive attachments and identifications (March and Olsen, 1984, 1989). At their core, however, what gives institutional arrangements peculiar moral force may be their ‘natural’ quality, their apparent analogy with easily understood or larger processes at work in the physical world or the broader society (Douglas, 1987). The practices of legislatures often embody some longstanding basic principles (such as majority voting and the rules of fair debate) whose apparent ‘naturalness’ and ancient origins play an important part in assuring legitimacy for legislative outcomes. In maintaining the accountability of governments, most liberal democratic legislatures rely on apparently simple ‘answerability’ mechanisms — making members of the executive directly and personally explain government policies and decisions. This approach is fundamental, creating potent interactions where precise verbal formulations and personal responses function as clues to underlying attitudes in a way that indirect accountability inherently could never replicate.

Accountability in practice

Abstract: Explains how education at all stages has been affected recently by the principle of accountability. The book looks at the developments, legislative and social, which have led to widespread demand for accountability and how local government has responded.

The Functions of Committee Change in State Legislatures

Abstract: Little research has focused on the changes made in individual legislative committees through time. In this study we do a committee-by-committee analysis to determine the extent to which various com...

State and Local Politics

Abstract: Part 1 The framework of analysis: state and local politics - themes and variations federalism and intergovernmental relations. Part 2 Subnational political institutions and processes: political culture, public opinion, and political participation political parties and interest groups legislatures, governors, mayors and professional managers bureacuracy state court systems. Part 3 State and local policy making: the policy process in state and local politics taxing and spending economic policy environmental policy criminal justice and state politics education welfare and health care.

Paths to power of women legislators in Costa Rica and Nicaragua

Abstract: Women are underrepresented in national legislatures, but in recent years the proportion of women in Costa Rica and Nicaragua has increased. Based on in-depth interviews with women representatives in the national legislatures of these two countries, this article explores the factors associated with increased representation for women. The political history of each country, including the development of women's legal rights, certain characteristics of the electoral system, the role of the state as an actor in gender politics, women's political activity, and important international bodies and events were found to influence the number and types of women elected. It appears that there are multiple paths that women may pursue to gain representation in national legislatures.

Mobilizing Nigerian Women for National Development: The Role of the Female Elites

Abstract: At the heart of the acceptance of the "women question" into development policies is the general awareness created on the condition of women as a result of the International Women's Year (1975) and the decade that followed (The United Nation's Decade for Women, 1975-1985), with the theme "Equality, Development and Peace." The organization of African Unity through the Lagos Plan of Action in 1981, in response to the UN Decade for Women, set out strategies for economic development in Africa from 1980 to 2000. It stressed the importance of giving special attention to women in 198085, in such priority areas as education, training and employment; organizational machinery; communications and mass media; health nutrition and family life; research, data collection and analysis; and legislature and administrative matters. In the area of employment, the plan emphasized the need to promote recognition and documentation of women's contributions to agriculture, especially in terms of food supply and the need for continuous research to accomplish this. It is imperative therefore for national plans to recognize women's contribution and skills, while labor and welfare legislation codes are to be adapted to African conditions and women's multiple responsibilities in both urban and rural settings. The Nigerian Federal Government established the National Committee on Women and Development in November 1982, and directed that committees on Women and Development should be set up at state levels in response to the recommendations of the World Conference of the International Women's Year in Mexico City, 1975, and the second extraordinary session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Governments of the Organisation of African Unity in Lagos, April 1980.

Policy Disputes as a Source of Administrative Controls: Congressional Micromanagement of the Department of Defense

Abstract: Is congressional micromanagement an unwarranted and inappropriate intrusion into the operations of the federal bureaucracy? Focusing on congressional oversight of the Defense Department, Kenneth R. Mayer shows that budgetary and administrative micromanagement are legislative tools for achieving policy preferences within DoD. He argues that calls for reform of micromanagement must take the policy making prerogatives of Congress into account. Congressional activity on the defense budget-line-item changes, programmatic restrictions, requests for reports and information-is often criticized as micromanagement. Micromanagement is viewed as an inappropriate intrusion by Congress into executive branch affairs, and is said to result in inefficiency. Critics of micromanagement urge Congress to return to a policy-focused view of the defense budget, in which reviews of national security strategy and requirements would replace program-level and management instructions. In doing so, Congress would return to its proper role of overseer of national policy and would vastly increase the efficiency with which the defense budget could be managed.

The prescribed roles of police in a free society: Analyzing state legal codes

Abstract: We examine all 50 states' legal codes to determine the roles and tasks that state legislatures require of police. We find that law enforcement is most prevalent, followed by peacekeeping and service roles. We make suggestions for remedying the lack of the service role in state legislative definitions of police.

Analysis, advice, and congressional leadership: the Physician Payment Review Commission and the politics of Medicare.

Abstract: In 1985, Congress established the Physician Payment Review Commission (PPRC) to help formulate changes in the system used by Medicare to pay for physician services. The recommendations of the PPRC and subsequent legislative action led to fundamental reform. As a new type of advisory body, the PPRC enabled Congress to establish an agenda for physician payment reform and set it into law despite initial resistance from the executive branch. Four key factors contributed to the influence of the commission: (1) an institutional design that enhanced and integrated congressional policy formulation; (2) the quality of the information generated for legislative deliberation; (3) the open, consensual process the commission used to translate that information into policy recommendations; and (4) the strategic packaging of the proposals for reform. In the process leading to enactment of the new payment system, the commission skillfully bridged the traditionally segmented roles of neutral analyst and political advisor for legislators pursuing Medicare reform. Implementation of physician payment reform has been largely an administrative responsibility, in which the PPRC has played a minimal role. The complexity and ambiguity of some of the legislative provisions have left room for administrative officials and interest groups to maneuver according to their priorities. Thus, despite congressional efforts to design a tightly controlled system, a considerable amount of work remains to assure its technical and political success.

The public and the controversy over abortion.

Abstract: THE ARRIVAL of a new presidential administration in Washington, DC, has been marked by vigorous debate about two major health policy issues—national health reform and abortion. While the national health reform debate will be centered on the passage of a single piece of legislation, the abortion controversy encompasses a number of distinct judicial, legislative, and administrative policy decisions. In each of these areas, the Clinton administration seeks to reverse the trend established in the Reagan-Bush years of increased restrictions on access to abortion and other reproductive services. Within the American medical community and among the general public, few issues are as controversial as abortion. Concern has deepened recently as violent protests and personal attacks on physicians have escalated in the wake of Clinton's decision to remove the gag rule on abortion counseling in family planning centers, and as he and Congress take up several policy initiatives: passing a freedom of

The Rebudgeting Process in State Government: The Case of Missouri:

Abstract: State budgets change during the year, but why they change and how the changes affect present and future budgetary policy remains largely unexplored. This article examines these two questions by studying the process through which the budget changes after appropriations have been approved, a process referred to as rebudgeting, in the state of Missouri. Findings indicate that rebudgeting in Missouri arises largely because of managerial needs and environmental pressures. If the content of annual budget was not allowed to adjust to these forces, the effectiveness of budgeting in general would likely decline. The findings also suggest that deviations from the appropriated budget may affect how the legislature and the executive define the budget base, and it reflects the predominant budgetary role the governor plays during the fiscal year. Finally, the data indicate that changes are facilitated not only by budgetary surpluses, as has previously been argued, but also by fiscal stress.