Formal Authority, Persuasive Power, And Effectiveness In State Legislatures

Keywords

comparative legislatures; legislative behavior; legislative effectiveness; legislative politics; legislative professionalism

Abstract

What makes some lawmakers more effective than others is a central question in American politics. Recent research has emphasized the role of informal, persuasive leadership, but this research has focused almost exclusively on Congress, so it is unclear whether this approach to lawmaking is generally effective. Analysis of state legislatures is hampered by the lack of a theoretically sound and practically feasible measure of legislative effectiveness. I offer a solution to the primary problem with traditional hit rates. I apply this approach to North Carolina legislators and show my effectiveness estimates correspond with expert evaluations. I then examine recent terms of the Michigan, Georgia, and North Carolina legislatures to evaluate the relative importance of formal and informal powers at the state level. I hypothesize and find that informal, persuasive leadership is not effective in state legislatures where lawmaking is better explained by formal, hierarchical authority.

Publication Date

9-1-2018

Publication Title

State Politics and Policy Quarterly

Volume

18

Issue

3

Number of Pages

324-346

Document Type

Article

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1177/1532440018786730

Socpus ID

85050391384 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/85050391384

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