Examining the Drivers of State Legislative Efficiency, 1993-2016
Open Access
Author:
Griggs, Robert Jacob
Area of Honors:
Political Science
Degree:
Bachelor of Arts
Document Type:
Thesis
Thesis Supervisors:
Michael Barth Berkman, Thesis Supervisor Matthew Richard Golder, Thesis Honors Advisor
Keywords:
Legislative Efficiency State Government Divided Government Competition Polarization
Abstract:
This research quantitatively analyzes the effects of party polarization and party competition on legislative efficiency, which is defined as the number of bills passed by a legislature in a given year. To do this, I analyzed the effects of polarization, divided government, and party competition on legislative efficiency. This paper finds no significant relationship for the independent variables of polarization and divided government, but finds a strong positive relationship between party competition and legislative efficiency. It also finds that polarization does not affect efficiency more in recent years than it did previously. My work builds on the previous research into the factors behind legislative efficiency, and provides differing conclusions to many works of literature currently in the field.
