Deliberation provides the possibility that a number of legislators will be influenced by the discussion. The deliberative process is not restricted to the debate or lack thereof that goes on at the second reading stage on the senate and house floor.
It is also a vital element of committee activity and continues in the frequent and unstructured exchanges in members' offices, leadership conferences, at lunch, and in the corridors of the state house or legislative office building. Deliberation as a standard is central to the very idea of a legislature. Sixth, while deliberation involves the exchange of ideas, building consensus involves a more material exchange.
It depends on the willingness of opposing sides to sit down at a table together and negotiate their differences. Generally, that means dealing, trading and compromise, so that as many participants as possible buy into a settlement. The overwhelming majority of laws enacted by a legislature are settled by some process of consensus building. On relatively few issues are lines so firmly drawn that negotiating is fruitless and battling it out is the only way to arrive at a decision.
There is little doubt that one of the most important tasks of the legislature is to build consensus; a legislature that is effective in this regard is likely to be an effective legislature. Seventh, these processes not only work to make laws, they are also intended to address problems facing the state.
If legislative processes are not related to state needs, they cannot entirely fulfill the expected lawmaking function. Ideally, we expect legislatures to solve problems and improve conditions in the state. At the very least, legislatures have to address problems. Two sets of factors contribute substantially to the ability of a legislature to perform well.
One can be called capacity, the other institutionalism. Capacity in the broadest sense is the resources, the wherewithal for the legislature to do its job. In the parlance of legislative reform, the amount of time in session and in the interim period, the size of the professional staff, the adequacy of facilities and technology add up to legislative capacity. How much staff is needed? How should it be organized? Is a full-time legislature better than a part-time one? Questions like these deserve attention, although I doubt that the answers are the same in every place.
Whether the legislature is more professional or more amateur may not be critical either. Just what combination of resources or how much of each type is optimum or sufficient probably varies from state to state. A vital part of a legislature's capacity is the quality of the legislators themselves. In considering quality, we have to deal with the issue of professional versus citizen legislators-that is, those who are relatively full-time careerists on the one hand and those who are essentially part- and short-timers on the other.
In just about every legislature, some of each type exist. But in some legislatures for example, California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan and Pennsylvania professionals predominate, while in others for example, Montana, New Hampshire, Vermont and Wyoming citizens predominate. It is not possible to say that one type of member is more desirable than another for a legislature, or just what mix works best. Quality also applies to the personal characteristics of legislators, and especially of legislative leaders.
The reputations of legislatures in California during the late s and early s and Florida and Minnesota during the s and s were based in large part on the substantial number of able, intelligent, energetic, dedicated and politically skillful individuals who served at the time.
These members made a marked difference in the performance of the legislature. Legislators with such characteristics clearly contribute to legislative performance everywhere. The integrity, or the ethics, of the legislature is an integral part of capacity. Although we do not define legislative goodness strictly in terms of the ethical behavior of members, the ethics of the capitol community and the type and enforcement of ethics laws are among the factors that affect how legislators function.
Legislatures characterized by integrity are likely to do better than those where the ethical conduct of members is over the line or too near the line. Legislative integrity in deed and in spirit matters not only to the public, but also to the overall ability of the legislature to fulfill its representational responsibilities. Institutionalism is related to a combination of factors that pertain to a legislator's identification with the senate or the house and with the legislature as a political institution.
Three of the most important ones are concern, community and continuity. Concern has to do with a sense of, identification with, or dedication to the legislature, all of which are likely to promote the performance of balancing power and making law. For a legislature to be good, it needs members who care about its well-being and who engage in institution-building activities or at least do not engage in activities that are institutionally harmful or destructive. Members who are institutionally inclined will defend the legislature against criticism they believe unjust and will discourage colleagues from running against the institution in order to win office.
Community encompasses the culture and norms of the legislature. It requires some level of agreement on the need for civility and some manifestation of collegiality.
Informal socializing among legislators helps to build community. In most places such interaction has been in decline in recent years; nonetheless, it remains an element of institutionalism, and one that seems to facilitate the performance of legislative functions. Continuity is probably as important to institutionalism as anything else. Some continuity of membership and staff not only provides for greater knowledge and skill on the parts of lawmakers, but it promotes institutional values.
It takes a while for most new members to identify with and develop concern for the legislature as an institution that merits their support.
Continuity does not require extremely low turnover of membership, but only that some members serve for a decent period of time. By requiring that everyone turn over with relatively brief regularity and by discouraging legislators from identifying with an institution they are passing through, term limits run counter to institutional continuity.
The 18 states that currently limit terms are at a disadvantage when it comes to having a good legislature. This model of the good legislature is based on three principal legislative functions-balancing power, representing constituencies and lawmaking. The factors that facilitate performance of these functions are capacity and institutionalism. Some might suggest a different model, but on the basis of what I have read and observed of legislatures, I think this is as good as any place to start thinking about what makes a legislature good.
It will not be easy to bring to life the categories discussed here; it is virtually impossible to measure the several dimensions of the good legislature and to rank the legislatures of the 50 states on goodness. What is most measurable is probably least significant and what is probably most significant is least measurable. Uprooting a legislature from the political culture of its state cannot be done.
What serves well in Vermont might not serve well in California, and vice versa; and what serves well in Iowa might not serve well in Florida, and vice versa. Comparing legislatures across states is tricky business; giving legislatures numerical scores is impossible business. But even if measurement is beyond our ability, it is about time that we figure out roughly what a good legislature is and roughly how well our own legislature is measuring up.
Alan Rosenthal comments that most of his criteria for a good legislature cannot be easily measured, and they are certainly subjective. But that shouldn't stop you from trying to evaluate how good your legislature is. Give your legislature a grade on each of the following questions.
Does your legislature initiate and enact its own legislation and make independent decisions about the state budget? Are the numbers of women, African Americans and Hispanics in your legislature reasonably reflective of the population of your state? Do the members of your legislature provide effective constituent service including responses to requests for information, casework, local projects and public expenditures? Do citizens and groups in your state have ready access to information on agendas and proceedings of the legislature?
Does your legislature provide effective civic education for the public of all age levels about representative democracy, the legislative institution and the lawmaking process? Does your legislature allow effective participation and input from citizens and organized groups in lawmaking decisions?
Is there a reasonable level of internal democracy within your chamber? Is power relatively dispersed and are the parliamentary rights of individual members protected and respected? Do you have effective legislative leaders who have strategic, problem-solving and consensus-building abilities? Is the degree of partisanship in your legislature reasonable? Does the majority party have enough clout to get things done? Are the rights of the minority party protected?
Are there reasonable restraints on partisanship so that civility is maintained? Is your legislature deliberative? Does it allow for give and take and the open exchange of ideas at all stages of the formal and informal legislative process? Does your legislature engage in consensus building? Are opposing sides willing to negotiate differences and find compromises to difficult problems? Does your legislature have the resources staff, time, facilities, technology to do its job effectively?
Does your legislature have integrity? Do the members of the legislature and the Capitol community in general behave in ethical ways? Is there adequate continuity in the membership of your legislature to promote institutional values and pass on knowledge and skills?
Create Account. Other Resources Legislatures and Elections Beyond the intuition that says "I know one when I see one," how do you go about measuring the effectiveness of any given legislature? By Alan Rosenthal What do we want our state legislatures of the 21st century to be? So what is an effective, a good legislature in a time of dramatic change?
Balancing Power Constitutionally, legislatures are separate, co-equal branches indeed, the legislature is the first branch of government and the executive the second that share governmental power. Representing Constituencies One of the major roles of a legislature is representation-representing various constituencies, mainly people in each lawmaker's electoral district, but also organized groups and individuals elsewhere in the state.
Making Law Although representing others deals with the relations between the legislature and the public, lawmaking is internally focused. What should we expect of the lawmaking process? Facilitating Factors Two sets of factors contribute substantially to the ability of a legislature to perform well. Committee chairs are members of the majority party, and committee membership usually reflects the partisan composition of the House. Currently, the Democrats are the majority party in both Houses. In the Senate there are 24 Democrats and 16 Republicans.
There are 52 Democrats and 28 Republicans in the General Assembly. The chief function of the Legislature is to enact laws. A proposal to make a new law, or to change or repeal an existing law, is presented to the Legislature as a bill.
To become law, a bill must pass both Houses by a majority vote and be approved by the Governor. How a Bill Becomes Law presents the steps in the process.
The Legislature can also propose amendments to the New Jersey Constitution. No action by the Governor is required. If passed, the proposed amendment is placed on the ballot in November for a public vote. An amendment may also be presented to the voters if the Legislature passes it two years in a row by a majority vote.
Additional powers of the Legislature include Senatorial approval of the Governor's appointments of judges and other officials.
The Legislature is also empowered to ratify amendments to the U. Constitution; appoint the State Auditor ; judge the elections and qualifications of its members; and institute and conduct impeachment proceedings against State officials. At the general election in November , the voters approved a constitutional amendment permitting the Legislature to review administrative rules and regulations.
Formal legislative action is expressed through the passage of a bill, or by adoption of a resolution, which expresses the sentiments or opinions of the members. There are three types of resolutions. A joint resolution must pass both Houses and be signed by the Governor.
A concurrent resolution must pass both Houses, but is not presented to the Governor. A simple resolution is considered only by the House in which it is proposed.
The State operates on a fiscal year that begins on July 1 and ends the following June The Governor delivers the annual budget message to the Legislature for the ensuing fiscal year on or before the third Tuesday following the first meeting of the Legislature, except in a gubernatorial inaugural year when it is delivered later.
Text of the proposed budget can be accessed at the State of New Jersey, the web site for the Executive Branch. Committee review of the Governor's budget proposals is conducted through staff research and a series of hearings during which members of the Executive Branch and the public provide testimony.
In recent years legislative budget hearings have generally taken place during the months of March, April, and May. The appropriations committees produce a budget in the form of an annual appropriations bill.
As with any other law, the appropriations bill must be passed by both Houses and approved by the Governor or enacted by overriding a veto.
The budget must be signed by July 1. Legislators value the opinions and suggestions of their constituents. In addition, through their professionally staffed district offices, legislators are prepared to respond to requests for information about legislative matters or for assistance in dealing with State agencies. You may call, write or electronically mail legislators at their district offices. Consult the Roster of Members listing at this web site for district office addresses and phone numbers.
Box Trenton, NJ When addressing mail to a legislator, the title "Honorable" should precede the representative's full name. The Office of Legislative Services is the Legislature's non-partisan agency providing legal, fiscal, research, bill-drafting, and administrative services; committee staffing; computer database management; and public information programs and publications. It operates under the jurisdiction of the Legislative Services Commission, a bipartisan body consisting of eight members of each House appointed by the respective presiding officers.
Each party in each House is served by a full-time partisan staff that operates under the direction of the party leadership. These partisan staffs provide research, policy, public relations, and administrative services for their respective party leaders, committee chairs, and individual legislators.
Each of the four partisan staffs is headed by an Executive Director. In addition, each legislator maintains a district office with professional staffing. Box Trenton, NJ When addressing mail to a legislator, the title "Honorable" should precede the representative's full name.
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