Legislative Leaders Research Articles

Descriptive Representation, Legislative Leadership, and Direct Democracy: Latino Influence on English Only Laws in the States, 1984-2002

AbstractHow does minority racial and ethnic descriptive representation exert policy influence in majoritarian representative institutions? And how do nonrepresentative majoritarian institutions, such as the citizen initiative, affect the degree of this influence? I use an event history analysis of state adoption of English Only laws from 1984 to 2002 to test a model of minority policy influence that is exerted through the possession of state legislative leadership positions. Unlike previous studies, I find that the size of the minority population and the level of descriptive representation in the legislature exert only an indirect effect on legislative policy decisions. Furthermore, the majoritarian rules of the initiative undermine the policy influence minorities gain through legislative leadership and can actually lead to a policy backlash.

Assessing Louisiana and the Challenges Ahead

Assessing Louisiana and the Challenges Ahead

Government Redistribution in the Shadow of Legislative Elections: A Study of the Illinois Member Initiative Grants Program

We study an Illinois state government program called “member initiative spending” and examine the extent to which three competing theories can explain the program's allocations among Illinois's 118 House districts. We show that member initiative monies distributed before the 2000 general election were disproportionately allocated to districts that were politically competitive, represented by legislative leaders, or represented by moderate legislators. Our analysis supports theories that claim budgetary decisions made by elected officials are tactical, and it shows that the Illinois decision makers who allocated member initiative funds sought to distribute them in a way that would be most beneficial in the sense of vote buying.

High Standards + High Stakes = High Achievement in Massachusetts

Massachusetts has made great strides in education over past decade, Mr. Reville reports. He attributes success in large part to very factors that have drawn most criticism: high standards and high stakes attached to state assessments. IN THE EARLY 1990s, a very ambitious school reform agenda emerged in Massachusetts as a result of advocacy of Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education (MBAE). In 1991, MBAE presented its reform agenda, titled Every Child a Winner! to state policy makers. Gov. William Weld and legislative leaders embraced and refined MBAE reform concept, ultimately shaping it into Massachusetts Education Reform Act of 1993.1 This omnibus bill included basic goals, assessment, and accountability elements of standards-based reform; a variety of system improvements, including charter schools; and a massive refinancing of education. The Massachusetts reform strategy developed as a response to rising concerns among business and higher education leaders that state's high school graduates were not well prepared to meet entry-level challenges in employment or college. In light of increased international competition, changes in economy, a greater focus on equity, and demands of an increasingly knowledge-based society, these leaders concluded that public education system was not responding adequately to challenges of 21st century. The achievement bar had been raised, and consequently importance and value of education to both individuals and society was rapidly increasing.2 The reformers' standards-based vision of a transformed, accountable system that could deliver equity and excellence was homegrown but informed by strategies being adopted in other states and at federal level. It is noteworthy that reformers' vision reflected an unusual national phenomenon -- convergence of business/economic and civil rights/equity interests around building a high-performance education system. The Massachusetts Case The Massachusetts standards-based reform strategy calls for high learning standards for all (and all means all) students, regular assessment to track progress for diagnostic and accountability purposes, and a set of consequences -- that is, a performance-based accountability system for both educators and students. Equally important and too often forgotten, strategy calls for both capacity building, providing teachers training and support they need to assist students in meeting new higher goals for education, and opportunity to learn, providing each student with high-quality teaching, a curriculum aligned with standards, regular feedback on performance, and extra help when needed.3 The Massachusetts standards were designed to reflect requirements for success in higher education, employment, and citizenship. They state, in precise language, what children should know and be able to do at various stages of their education. While standards articulate expected results -- a set of outcome indicators that are subject to measurement -- they do not dictate a particular curriculum or form of instruction. Standards do not imply standardization; rather, they are goals that teachers, in their professional discretion, strive to achieve in varying ways.4 A corollary of high expectations for all students is belief that fairness requires state to have same high expectations of all students, irrespective of their backgrounds. These reforms seek to realize American myth, sadly so far from reality, that public schools are the great equalizer. In pursuit of this goal, reformers refuse to continue to make automatic assumption that we should have higher educational expectations for affluent children than we have for poor children. We know that a grade of A earned in a suburban school has usually represented far more learning than typical A earned in an inner-city school. …

Fiscal Planning, Budgeting, and Rebudgeting Using Revenue Semaphores

Revenue forecasts play an important role in the state government budget and policy process. These forecasts are generally reported to executive and legislative leaders as point estimates, with no acknowledgment of their corresponding risk and uncertainty. The revenue semaphores proposed in this article outline procedures by which revenue uncertainty directly influences the planning process. The goal is not to make forecasts more accurate, but to make discussions of budget and revenue alternatives more comprehensive. Explicitly incorporating risk and uncertainty measures into the budgeting process increases the degree of real‐time budgeting and reduces some adverse effects of budget revisions after the fiscal year begins. The discussion occurs in the context of budget control, management, and policy making.

CREATING A LEARNING COMMUNITY: eTECH COLLEGE OF WISCONSIN

In an era of rapidly changing demands from students, taxpayers, and legislative leaders, the Wisconsin Technical College System (WTC System) embarked on the development of a new online college to increase student access and save resources. The eTech College of Wisconsin represents a unique venture that requires collaboration and that shares resources and curriculum among 16 colleges, each governed by its own Board of Directors. Colleges operate largely independently in day-to-day activities, such as in technology acquisition and course and program development. Establishing the eTech College required all colleges and the WTC System Office to work together through each stage of development and implementation. Launched in August 2001, the results have been immediate and enrollment growth dramatic. However, the colleges and System Office continue to work on challenges and opportunities to ensure continued growth and success of the eTech College.

Mr. Clean Gets Dirty: The Demise of Public Ethics in Wisconsin

After a century-long record of clean government, patron-client politics prevail in Wisconsin. There have been scandals involving abuse of campaign laws and ethics in every branch of government. The most recent one concerns the legislature. A John Doe investigation into criminal behavior led to felony charges against the legislative leaders of both houses and both major parties. Among the indictments were charges that the legislative leaders had used their authority in the policy-making process to secure campaign funds that they allocated to candidates who, once elected, would vote to keep them in their leadership positions. In addition, a State Supreme Court justice was fined for campaign violations, and a governor was identified with trading state loans and contracts for campaign contributions. The pattern of patron-client politics that developed in Wisconsin is not unique; it happens whenever elected officials, rather than party leaders, raise and distribute campaign funds.

State initiatives on prescription drugs: creating a more functional market.

In response to unrelenting increases in prescription drug spending and use, many states are developing and implementing innovative policy solutions. The Reforming States Group (RSG), a nonpartisan organization of senior executive and legislative leaders from more than forty states and provinces formed in 1992, proposes a series of actions to improve the functioning of this market by introducing more explicit information on quality, effectiveness, and price and by experimental waiving of federal regulations.

Chief Executive Success in the Legislative Arena

AbstractAmerican chief executives are popularly believed to play a crucial leadership role in the legislative process, but this role is not well understood by scholars. This article develops a model of executive leadership success in the legislative arena based on personal, institutional, political, and economic factors and tests that model with data on the legislative priorities of the 50 state governors in 1993-94. Institutional features of the executive, which have been the focus of much scholarship, are found to have little effect on a governor's legislative success. On the other hand, the nature of the legislature is quite important here, with more professional legislatures actually encouraging executive leadership. A governor's personal characteristics, political party, and a state's economy also influence a governor's legislative success. These findings point to the importance of examining chief executives in the context in which they work if we are to understand their role as legislative leader.

State Legislative Leaders' Contacts with National Legislative Organizations: Differences in Cosmopolitanism, Resources, and Political Environments

This paper examines possible relationships between state legislative leaders' contacts with national professional organizations, such as the Council of State Governments, and indicators of differences in cosmopolitanism, in‐state information resources, and political environments. The findings suggest that leaders in states with unified party control of the executive and legislative institutions are more involved with national organizations than leaders from states with divided party control. However, there are no significant differences in involvement among leaders in terms of other party measures: whether they are Democrats or Republicans, majority or minority leaders, institutional or party leaders, or the degree of inter‐party competition in their legislative chambers. Additionally, leaders from small states with fewer in‐state information resources and those from more cosmopolitan urban or moralistic political culture states are more intensively involved with national organizations.

Women in Movement Transformations in African Political Landscapes

Since the mid-1980s and especially after the early 1990s, women's organizations have increased exponentially throughout Africa as have the arenas in which women have been able to assert their varied concerns. Women are organizing locally and nationally and are networking across the continent on an unprecedented scale. They have in many countries been aggressively using the media to demand their rights in a way not evident in the early 1980s. In some countries they are taking their claims to land, inheritance and associational autonomy to court in ways not seen in the past. Women are challenging laws and constitutions that do not uphold gender equality. In addition, they are increasingly moving into government, legislative, party, NGO and other leadership positions previously the nearly exclusive domain of men. In these and other ways women have taken advantage of the new political openings that occurred in the 1990s, even if the openings were limited and precarious. This second generation of activism is markedly different from the earlier post-independence generation of women's mobilization. The reasons for these shifts are varied: the rise of multi-partyism and demise of military rule; the growing influence of the international women's movement; shifting donor strategies; the expansion of the use of the cell phone and the Internet in the late 1990s; coupled with a significant increase in secondary and university educated women. The article explores the major changes in women's mobilization in Africa by contrasting the current women's movements with those that emerged after independence.

THE ROUNDTABLE ON HIGHER EDUCATION: CREATING A NORTH DAKOTA UNIVERSITY SYSTEM FOR THE 21ST CENTURY

The Roundtable on Higher Education brought together the key stakeholders of the North Dakota University System (a unified system of 11 colleges and universities, including 5 community colleges) to establish consensus on a common vision, a clear set of expectations and the results for which the system would be held accountable. The roundtable effectively engaged these stakeholders at the front end of the process in a manner that made them active participants and led to the stakeholders taking ownership of the effort. Although there was an element of risk in this approach, the benefits have far exceeded expectations. This initiative is resulting in the development of a new relationship between the University System and the state's executive and legislative branches, as well as a new relationship between the University System and the private sector. Roundtable members refer to this new way of doing business as "public and private partnerships built upon mutual trust and a common purpose." Building these meaningful partnerships has taken a considerable commitment in North Dakota, but the results will likely have a major impact on the future of the state. The Roundtable on Higher Education has reached a level of accomplishment beyond the expectations of the State Board of Higher Education, the college and university presidents and those directly involved in the roundtable. For example, the landmark and comprehensive legislation passed during the 2001 legislative session was virtually identical to what was submitted. The State Board of Higher Education has authorized an entirely new funding model for the University System (as recommended by the roundtable), and the legislature granted the University System "flexibility with accountability"--a change that will be vitally important to the system's ability to play an expanded role in growing the state's economy. One challenge will be to maintain the momentum of this initiative, as well as the engagement of key stakeholders, especially since the initiative does not have an anticipated end date. Rather, it will be an evolving process with continued involvement by the key stakeholders. As targets are met and needs change, new recommendations will need to be defined. A high level of commitment will be essential to realizing the full potential of the roundtable. It is anticipated, however, that the project's success will help sustain it. The fundamental concept of engaging key stakeholders in developing consensus upon which to build a visionary plan is not original, nor is it unique to this initiative. Executive and legislative branch leaders in a number of states are attempting to better connect the tremendous resources and power of their higher education systems to the public agenda of their respective states. What is original and somewhat uncommon about this initiative is the application of effective leadership principles that help transform "knowing what needs to be done" into "making it happen." This leadership component is, undoubtedly, the most critical factor in the success of the Roundtable on Higher Education to date.

National Organizations as Sources of Information for State Legislative Leaders

National Organizations as Sources of Information for State Legislative Leaders

The Demise of Newt Gingrich as a Transformational Leader: Does Organizational Leadership Theory Apply to Legislative Leaders

The Demise of Newt Gingrich as a Transformational Leader: Does Organizational Leadership Theory Apply to Legislative Leaders

Gender and Gubernatorial Personality

Abstract Recent work in state politics has presented conflicting evidence regarding whether male and female political actors view and use power in different manners. In contrast with the previous works that have generally focused on gender differences in the legislative arena, this paper examines differences between male and female governors in the expressions of different notions of power in their personalities. Applying measurement strategies grounded in social psychology, we find that female governors are indeed more likely than male governors to express a more “feminine,” “power to” orientation in their public lives. Surprisingly, however, modern female governors are also more likely than a large sample of modern male governors to express the more traditional, hierarchical “power over” motive. Based on previous research, these findings bode well for the success of women governors as legislative leaders in the increasingly complex state political environments. Two important trends reveal themselves in ...

La structure juridique des entreprises (corporate governance)

Corporate governance as a normative concept appears to be directly linked to economic globalisation to the extent that it equally fits all internationally operating enterprises, that it is recommended by international institutions, and that it corresponds to the interests and responsibilities of international investors, in particular institutional investors interested in the primacy of « shareholder value ». The report analyses the meaning and the importance of the concept of corporate governance by examining, in a first part, the international spread of the principles of corporate governance, and, in a second part, the limits of the influence which the concept may exercise on the rules and practice of national corporate law. As regards, first, the international acceptance of the principles of corporate governance, a distinction is made between, on the one hand, the voluntary introduction of corporate governance, in particular by way of establishing professional standards and codes of conduct or by recommendation of public authorities or trade associations, and, on the other, by – mostly national rather than European – legislative action. In general, the latter only transforms existing or desirable « best practice » into legal rules, but, in some regard also takes legislative leadership, e.g. as regards the division of control within a corpora~tion or as regards transparency of remuneration of board members. Finally, principles of corporate governance may be imposed or enforced by regulatory action, in particular by the agency in charge of regulating the stock market or by the courts, when they rule on matters of corporate organisation or responsibility. Second, as regards the factors limiting general acceptance of the principles of corporate governance, they may be of an economic nature such as the high concentration of stock ownership on the Continent, or they may be of a political nature such as principled resistance to capitalist liberalism. In legal terms, however, the principal limitations are due to divergent national concepts of the role and function of enterprises in that they may combine in different ways shareholder interests with those of labor, e.g. by a variety of forms of codetermination, or with the protection of the environment or with other societal interests. In addition, principles of corporate governance are less easily accepted by corporations whose stocks are not listed at the stock exchange. In sum, therefore, corporate governance is a hallmark of globalisation with a considerable effect of harmonization and of enhancing the efficiency of corporate structures, but there is still and there will remain quite some diversity of rules and of conduct under the various national systems.

Influencing from Impaired Administrations: Presidents, White House Scandals, and Legislative Leadership

Influencing from Impaired Administrations: Presidents, White House Scandals, and Legislative Leadership

A View from the Top

ABSTRACT Women are no longer token participants in the governing process in U.S. state legislatures. Rather, they comprise more than one fifth of the state legislative membership and have become a visible force in leadership, holding about fifteen percent of all leadership positions. Unfortunately, there has been no systematic effort to examine the differences between the issue priorities of men and women leaders. Given the growing number of women in leadership and the importance of leaders as agenda setters, this question warrants attention. Our results indicate that while women are a growing part of modern legislative leadership teams, they are less prominent in key leadership positions. Women leaders in our sample do have legislative agendas distinct from their male counterparts. Specifically, women leaders are more likely to report issues of traditional concern to women: health care, social services, women's family and children's issues, and the environment as priorities. They are less likely than are men to emphasize taxes, budget matters, public safety, institutional regulation and matters of insurance or product liability as legislative priorities. Further, we find that differences between women and men leaders remain significant when controls for party, race, experience, type of leadership position and region are included in the model.

Tactical Maneuvering on Omnibus Bills in Congress

Omnibus legislating is a standard part of the congressional landscape altering traditional lawmaking in important ways. Yet we know little about it. Omnibus bills are almost always enacted into law. An important question, therefore, is, Why do leaders attach some bills to these measures and not others? I examine this question by developing and testing three sets of plausible explanations of omnibus packaging (one based on the leader-member relationship, a second based on the Congresspresident relationship, and a third based on environmental factors). I present an original definition of omnibus legislation and analyze the omnibus attachment process from 1979 to 1994. I find that leaders, members, and the president all accrue benefits from omnibus legislation. Consistent with the arguments of legislative scholars and political observers, a tough budgetary situation and divided government increase the likelihood of omnibus usage. Issue fragmentation within the committee system, however, provides the strongest contextual impact. C ongressional leaders employ a number of tactics to assemble legislative coalitions in the face of legislators' multidimensional preferences. Three key tactics utilized are (1) the ordering of alternatives in committee and on the floor (e.g., Baron and Ferejohn 1989; Denzau and Mackay 1983; Romer and Rosenthal 1978; McKelvey 1976); (2) the use of closed rules in the House limiting the acceptance of amendments once the legislation leaves the committee (e.g., Bach and Smith 1988; Binder 1997; Dion 1997; Fiorina 1987); and (3) the unification of diverse measures within a single large bill, or omnibus legislating. Much legislative research addresses the ordering of alternatives and the use of the closed rule. In contrast, the omnibus tactic is less intensely scrutinized. Several scholars conclude that an important recent change in the legislative process is the move to omnibus legislating (Baumgartner et al. 1997; Mayhew 1991; Oleszek 1996; Sinclair 1995, 1997; Smith 1989).1 This institutional change is important for two main reasons. First, when leaders utilize the omnibus tactic, they alter the time-honored legislative process. Omnibus packages are often fast-tracked through committees with less consideration than typical bills. Once assembled by leaders, omnibus packages are treated as one piece of legislation, seriously restricting the choices available to members on the floor. Members must take-it-or-leave-it and are seldom aware of the details contained in omnibus bills (Sinclair 1997; Smith 1989). Second, omnibus packages present a viable alternative legislative route for policy entrepreneurs pushing legislation. Legislative leaders behave strategically and attempt to assemble omnibus bills that will succeed. Evidence suggests that they are successful; over 98 percent of the omnibus bills identified in this study were enacted. Hence, omnibus attachments almost al-

American legislative leaders in the Northeast, 1911-1994

American legislative leaders in the Northeast, 1911-1994