Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T11:27:20.687Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

State Legislative Committees and Economic Connections: Expertise and Industry Service

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2021

James Coleman Battista
James Coleman Battista*
Affiliation:
University at Buffalo, SUNY, NY, USA
*
James Coleman Battista, University at Buffalo, SUNY 520 Park Hall, Buffalo, NY 14260, USA. Email: jbattist@buffalo.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

American state legislators commonly remain connected to the market, giving them the potential for unique expertise on how policy affects the industries they are connected to and the opportunity to help enact laws favoring those industries. This paper describes the extent to which state legislative committees are populated by legislators with economic connections to their jurisdiction, and analyzes appointment patterns to help distinguish stacking to tap expertise from stacking to serve an industry. I find that a substantial minority of committees are stacked with connected legislators. Appointment patterns show limited evidence for expertise in education and health care, for industry service in banking, and for both in agriculture.

Keywords

state legislaturescommitteesinformationexpertisefinancial interestindustry service
Type
Research Article
Information
State Politics & Policy Quarterly , Volume 12 , Issue 3 , September 2012 , pp. 284 - 302
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Battista, James Coleman. 2009. “Why Information? Choosing Committee Informativeness in U.S. State Legislatures.” Legislative Studies Quarterly 34:375–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buchanan, William, Eulau, Heinz, Ferguson, LeRoy C., and Wahlke, John C.. 1960. “The Legislator as Specialist.” Western Political Quarterly 13:636–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Center for Public Integrity. 2012a. “Nationwide Numbers.” http://www.iwatchnews.org/2000/05/21/5832/nationwide-numbers (Accessed May 3, 2012).Google Scholar
Center for Public Integrity. 2012b. “Public Service, Personal Gain: Legislators Hold Private Financial Interests in Laws.” http://www.iwatchnews.org/2000/05/21/5831/public-service-personal-gain (Accessed May 3, 2012).Google Scholar
Center for Public Integrity. 2012c. “About Us.” http://www.iwatchnews.org/about (Accessed May 3, 2012).Google Scholar
Clucas, Richard A. 2001. “Principal-Agent Theory and the Power of State House Speakers.” Legislative Studies Quarterly 26:319–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clucas, Richard A. 2007. “Legislative Professionalism and the Power of State House Leaders.” State Politics and Policy Quarterly 7:1–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cox, Gary W., and McCubbins, Mathew D.. 1993. Legislative Leviathan: Party Government in the House. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Crawford, Vincent P., and Sobel, Joel. 1982. “Strategic Information Transmission.” Econometrica 50:1431–1451.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilligan, Thomas W., and Krehbiel, Keith. 1987. “Collective Decision-Making and Standing Committees: An Informational Rationale for Restrictive Amendment Procedures.” Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization 33:459–490.Google Scholar
Gilligan, Thomas W., and Krehbiel, Keith. 1989. “Asymmetric Information and Legislative Rules with a Heterogeneous Committee.” American Journal of Political Science 33:459–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilligan, Thomas W., and Krehbiel, Keith. 1990. “Organization of Informative Committees by a Rational Legislature.” American Journal of Political Science 34:531–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hamm, Keith E. 1986. “The Role of ‘Subgovernments’ in U.S. State Policy Making: An Exploratory Analysis.” Legislative Studies Quarterly 11:321–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hamm, Keith, Hedlund, Ron, and Post, Stephanie. 2011. “Committee Specialization in State Legislatures During the Twentieth Century: Do Legislatures Tap the Talents of Their Members?” State Politics and Policy Quarterly. 11:299–324.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heclo, Hugh. 1978. “Issue Networks and the Executive Establishment.” In The New American Political System, ed. King, Anthony. Washington, DC: American Institute for Public Policy Research, 87–124.Google Scholar
Jenkins, Shannon. 2010. “Winnowing in US State Legislatures.” Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Krehbiel, Keith. 1991. Information and Legislative Organization. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kurtz, Karl T., Rosenthal, Alan, and Zukin, Cliff. 2003. Citizenship: A Challenge for All Generations. Denver, CO: National Conference of State Legislatures.Google Scholar
Lewis, Jeffrey B. 2001. “Estimating Voter Preference Distributions from Individual-Level Voting Data.” Political Analysis 9:275–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maddox, H. W. Jerome. 2004. “Working Outside of the State House (and Senate): Outside Careers as an Indicator of Professionalism in American State Legislatures.” State Politics and Policy Quarterly 4:211–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maltzman, Forrest. 1997. Competing Principals: Committees, Parties, and the Organization of Congress. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morgan, David R., and Wilson, Laura Ann. 1990. “Diversity in the American States: Updating the Sullivan Index.” Publius 20:71–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
National Conference of State Legislatures and American Society of Legislative Clerks and Secretaries. 1998. Inside the Legislative Process. Denver, CO: National Conference of State Legislatures.Google Scholar
Overby, L. Marvin, Kazee, Thomas A., and Prince, David W.. 2004. “Committee Outliers in State Legislatures.” Legislative Studies Quarterly 29:81–107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Petracca, Mark P. 1991. “The Poison of Professional Politics.” Cato Institute Policy Analysis No. 151. Washington, DC: Cato InstituteGoogle Scholar
Richman, Jesse. 2008. “Uncertainty and the Prevalence of Committee Outliers.” Legislative Studies Quarterly 33:323–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosenthal, Alan. 1974. Legislative Performance in the States: Explorations of Committee Behavior. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Rosenson, Beth A. 2005. The Shadowlands of Conduct: Ethics and State Politics. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar
Shepsle, Kenneth A. 1978. The Giant Jigsaw Puzzle: Democratic Committee Assignments in the Modern House. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Shepsle, Kenneth A., and Weingast, Barry R.. 1987. “The Institutional Foundations of Committee Power.” American Political Science Review 81:85–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Squire, Peverill. 2000. “Uncontested Seats in State Legislative Elections.” Legislative Studies Quarterly 25:131–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sullivan, John L. 1973. “Political Correlates of Social, Economic, and Religious Diversity in the American States.” Journal of Politics 35:70–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weingast, Barry R., and Marshall, William J.. 1988. “The Industrial Organization of Congress; or, Why Legislatures, Like Firms, Are Not Organized as Markets.” Journal of Political Economy 96:132–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar