The Reform of State Legislatures and the Changing Character of Representation

This is a discussion of the health of representative government in America today through an analysis of the contemporary character of state legislatures. During the last 20 years the states have undergone a major transformation as legislatures have come to resemble more and more the U.S. Congress. Now the sort of problems that plague Congress also plague the states. As professional politicians prosper, representative government suffers. Contents: Representation; Federalism; The Transformation of State Legislatures; The Changing of the Legislature in Four States: The Massachusetts General Court and the Commonwealth’s Political Crisis, Jeffrey Leigh Sedgwick; The Pennsylvania General AssemblyoThe House of Ill Repute Revisited, Charles E. Greenawalt, II and G. Terry Madonna; California: The Not-So-Golden State Legislature, Sherry Jeffe; The New Scalawags: How the South Carolina Legislature Really Works, Richard Moore; Tables; Reforming State Legislatures. Co-published with the Commonwealth Foundation for Public Policy Alternatives.