ABSTRACT
Few political institutions have experienced as much fundamental and far-reaching change in such a short period of time as have state legislatures. Just three decades ago many state legislatures were sadly malapportioned, unrepresentative, dominated by their governors and/or special interests, and unable and unwilling to deal with the pressing issues of the day. As one commentator (Heard, reported in ACIR 1982: 75) noted in 1966, “State legislatures may be our most extreme example of institutional lag. In their formal qualities they are largely 19th-Century organizations.” Most state legislatures truly were “sometimes governments” and not very good at that. Nonetheless, within a very short time many legislatures transformed themselves into effective and representative lawmaking institutions. As Alan Rosenthal (1989: 69) notes: “Within a decade legislatures had been rebuilt. They increased the time they spent on their tasks; they established or increased their professional staffs; and they streamlined their procedures, enlarged their facilities, invigorated their processes, attended to their ethics, disclosed their finances, and reduced their conflicts of interest.” In addition, legislatures across the country experienced a dramatic increase in the number of careerists, minorities, and women serving as lawmakers and successfully reasserted their authority vis-à-vis their governors.
