State Legislatures Today: Politics Under the Domes

State Legislatures Today: Politics Under the Domes

Description

A concise and provocative introduction to state legislative politics, State Legislatures Today examines legislatures and lawmakers, placing them in historical context, showing how they have evolved over the years, and differentiating them from Congress. This book covers state legislative elections, the changing job of state legislators, legislatures as organizations, the legislative process, and the various influences upon legislators.

This second edition includes new discussions of the following:

  • The rise of the Tea Party movement and its impact on state legislatures
  • A marked increase in one-party government, allowing for dramatic policy shifts
  • Striking increases in the use of recall elections and referenda to challenge legislative policy decisions
  • Highly visible state legislative policies on hot-button issues such as gun control, taxation, public employee benefits, teachers' unions, taxation, abortion, and immigration and education reform
  • Attempts to significantly change the structures of several state legislatures
  • The 2012 redistricting cycle that altered the nature of many legislative districts
  • The rare and historic 2010 "wave election" that saw the Republican Party gain more than seven hundred seats in state legislatures and the 2014 election that resulted in the most chambers controlled by the GOP in more than seventy-five years

ISBN

9781442247475

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield

Publication Date

2015

City

Lanham, MD

State Legislatures Today: Politics Under the Domes

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