Majority party change and committee jurisdictions in state legislatures Article

Makse, T. (2014). Majority party change and committee jurisdictions in state legislatures . LEGISLATIVE STUDIES QUARTERLY, 39(3), 387-405. 10.1111/lsq.12050

cited authors

  • Makse, T

authors

abstract

  • Committee jurisdictions are important in legislative organization, but the reorganization of jurisdictions has received scant attention, particularly in state legislatures, where the fluidity of committee organization allows us to examine rationales for change. In this article, I examine whether new majorities use jurisdiction reorganization for agenda-control purposes. Examining 39 state legislatures between 2003 and 2012, I test whether committee patterns are less stable in legislative sessions under new majorities and the extent to which reorganization reflects party priorities. I find that new majority parties eliminate committees that reflect the other party's policy priorities and create committees that reflect their priorities. © 2014 The Comparative Legislative Research Center of The University of Iowa.

publication date

  • January 1, 2014

published in

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

start page

  • 387

end page

  • 405

volume

  • 39

issue

  • 3