POS-3122 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Ex-Ante, Caucus, Collective Action
21 Mar 2018
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Document Summary
State legislatures: live and work among constituents, long hours, lower pay, smallest constituencies but most diversity. Some developments: ancestors: legislative assemblies used in the british american colonies, state legislatures have become more professionalized in the mid 1900s, 1990s: 21 states enacted state legislative term limits. Elections for state legislature: at the macro lever there is strong competition in state legislative elections, but at the local level (within districts) there is little competition. Incumbent protection districts: gerrymandering: when one party draws districts to improve its chances of winning seats, limitations to this, clashing interests among map makers, census data are over 2. 5 years old come election time. The jobs of the state legislature: 1. Oversight of the executive branch: the legislature must oversee the implementation of laws, principle-agent relationship: principle delegates authority to agent who has power to make decisions on the principles behalf. Committees- specializes in a policy areas (e. g. , education, transportation, agriculture, etc. : 2.
