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Broad Bills or Particularistic Policy? Historical Patterns in American State Legislatures

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 January 2010

GERALD GAMM  and
THAD KOUSSER
GERALD GAMM*
Affiliation:
University of Rochester
THAD KOUSSER*
Affiliation:
University of California at San Diego
*
Gerald Gamm is Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Rochester, Harkness Hall 331, Rochester, NY 14627-0146 ([email protected]).
Thad Kousser is Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, University of California at San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093 ([email protected]). During the 2009–2010 academic year, Thad Kousser is a Campbell National Fellow at the Hoover Institution and a Visiting Associate Professor at Bill Lane Center for the American West, Stanford University.
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Abstract

When do lawmakers craft broad policies, and when do they focus on narrow legislation tailored to a local interest? We investigate this question by exploring historical variation in the types of bills produced by American state legislatures. Drawing on a new database of 165,000 bills—covering sessions over 120 years in thirteen different states—we demonstrate the surprising prominence of particularistic bills affecting a specific legislator's district. We then develop and test a theory linking the goals of legislators to their propensity to introduce district bills rather than broad legislation. We find that, consistent with our predictions, politicians are more likely to craft policies targeted to a particular local interest when a legislature is dominated by one party or when it pays its members relatively high salaries. These findings provide empirical support for Key's (1949) thesis that one-party politics descends into factionalism and undermines the making of broad public policy.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 104 , Issue 1 , February 2010 , pp. 151 - 170
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2010

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