• Joint Project on Legislative Term Limits 
• Topics for Legislative Research
• Congressional Research Awards Announcement 
• Visiting Scholars Program
• Elite Interviewing Short Course

    In October 2000 Alan Rosenthal of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University convened a conference on Using Legislative Research at the Eagleton Institute. The conference was a joint gathering of political scientists who do state legislative institutional research and representatives of the National Conference of State Legislatures and Council of State Governments and a number of legislative staff who are consumers or brokers of that research. The Carnegie Corporation provided financial support for the conference. 
    The participants in the conference established the following agenda for future communication and cooperation between producers and users of legislative research: 

1. A joint project on legislative term limits and their effects. 

2. Development of databases on state legislatures. 

3. Encouraging young scholars to study state legislatures. 

4. Making political science research more accessible and understandable to legislative practitioners. 

    The following outline of topics and questions for institutional legislative research was generated by NCSL staff for a conference of political scientists and practitioners on Using Legislative Research at the Eagleton Institute of Politics in October 2000. The questions are ones that NCSL is asked regularly by legislators, legislative staff and the media. They are intended to be suggestive rather than exhaustive. Term limits affect a great many of the topics, so we have noted "Term limits impact?" at the end of the questions where term limits are relevant in addition to the separate topic for term limits at the end.
    The questions are listed without regard to how well the political science literature has answered (or can answer) them. A key reason for this is that practitioners generally do not know much about the findings of institutional research by political scientists. We believe that one of the priority topics for discussion between political scientists and legislative practitioners should be how practitioners can more easily access political science research in formats that are understandable to lay readers.

I. Legislators

Districts and redistricting

• What is the impact of redistricting on competitiveness of districts?

• What are the causes and consequences of changing demographics of legislators (occupations, age, gender, minorities, SES)?
• What explains variation in legislator demographics from state to state? Term limits impact? Do ethics laws affect who runs and serves?

• Why do people run for the legislature? Why do they stay or leave?

• Is there a measure of legislator workload that is more effective than time in session?
• How does workload vary from state to state and what explains it?
• Does increasing workload (session, interim, constituent service, campaigning) affect the candidate pool over time or across states?

• What explains variation from state to state and over time in amount of constituent service? Term limits impact?
• Do state legislators gain an electoral advantage from constituent service? If so, in which states?

• What explains differences between states in tenure and turnover of members? Term limits impact?

• Are legislators accountable? How does their accountability compare to that of other professions?

• Why has there been an increase in the number of uncontested elections? What explains variation from state to state and over time? Does it make any difference in the performance of the legislature? Term limits impact?
• Why has there been a decrease in the number of competitive seats? What explains variation from state to state? Does it make any difference? Term limits impact?

• How have the roles of state parties and legislative party leaders in candidate recruitment, fund raising and electioneering changed? What explains variation from state to state? Have term limits affected these roles?
• How have increasing electoral roles of legislative leaders affected the institution?
• Which states experience the negative effects of a Congress-style "permanent campaign?" Can anything be done about it?

• Which states have the most frequent changes in party control? Why? Why do some states with close margins frequently change party control while others that are equally close do not?

• How has state legislative campaign finance changed? What explains variation from state to state? Term limits impact?
• What have been the effects of campaign finance reforms, especially stronger disclosure requirements?
• Which campaign finance reforms work?
• See also Lawmaking below.

• What are the effects of multi-member districts on constituent service, representation?

• How have legislative branch expenditures changed? How do they vary from state to state? How are they spent? Who controls them? Does it make any difference? (Need to go beyond census data.)

• Are more professionalized legislatures better or worse? By what criteria?

• What are the institutional effects of extensive partisan and personal staffing?

• What are the effects of differing levels of compensation of legislators? Does compensation make any difference?

• What have been the internal institutional effects (e.g. distribution of power) of information technology?
• What have been the external institutional effects (constituent relations, public opinion, balance of power) of information technology?
• Has e-mail changed the relationships between legislators and constituents?

• What factors influence legislators' behavior? In particular, what is the effect of campaign contributions on legislators' decisions compared to other factors?

• Do large or small numbers of committees make any difference?

• Do rules designed to prevent end-of-session logjams make any difference? Why do some states have bigger problems with end-of-session logjams than others do?

• What are the consequences of lengthening/shortening the legislative session? Annual vs. biannual?
• Does effective use of the interim make any difference in the functioning of the legislature?
• How can we measure institutional workload effectively? How does it vary from state to state? Why do states of similar size and complexity vary in legislative workload?

• Do some legislatures deliberate more effectively than others? If so, how? What makes a difference? Term limits impact?
• What are the effects on the legislature of leaving all major issues to negotiations between top leaders and the governor for resolution?

• What is the effect of the proliferation of initiatives on the behavior of legislators and legislatures?
• What is the effect of increasing campaign expenditures on the initiative process?
• Does the growing role of the courts in the initiative process have any effect?
• What difference do various measures designed to mitigate the negative effects of the initiative process make?

• See also Elections above.

• How do states' leadership selection processes vary? Why do some states have long leadership tenure and others don't? Do the variations make any difference? Term limits impact?

• How have the formal and informal powers of legislative leaders changed? Term limits impact? What differences have the changes made for legislatures?

• See Lawmaking/Deliberation above.
• Have the powers of attorneys-general in relation to legislatures changed? What is the effect on the legislature?
• Term limits impact on balance of power between legislature and executive?

Budgeting

• Does expanding the participation of legislators in the budgetary process lead to greater leadership power in the end game?
• What explains variation between the states in the use of pork in the budget? Does it make any difference?
• Do legislatures that have large resources for budget analysis make better decisions and balance executive power more effectively?
• Has performance-based budgeting made any difference?

• What constitutes effective legislative oversight? Who does it well and why? Does it make any difference?

• Term limits impact on lobbyist-legislator relations?

• What are the institutional and individual impacts of strict gift limitations?
• See also Demographics above.

Public opinion

• What explains differences in public opinion about the legislature over time and across states?
• What can be done to change public opinion about the legislature? What are the practical solutions to breaking down the barriers between legislatures and the public? Do legislatures that have effective public information and education services have a different relationship with the public?
• What is the effect of public cynicism and distrust toward government on the legislature?

• How have changes in how the media cover the legislature affected the institution?
• How does media coverage of the legislature affect the public standing of the legislature?
• How has information technology changed media coverage of the legislature?

What have been the effect of term limits on:

• Legislator demographics?
• Constituent service?
• Tenure and turnover of members?
• Competitiveness of elections?
• Legislative party leadership--selection and roles?
• Deliberation?
• Balance of power with executive?
• Lobbying?
• Staffing?

Many of the questions begin with "what are the effects of…?" or "does it make a difference?" These questions presuppose that there are some criteria against which we can judge effects or consequences. Can political scientists and practitioners agree on criteria by which to evaluate the performance of legislatures? Is there a way to evaluate the performance of one legislature against another in a way that avoids the flaws of the Sometimes Governments? Is it time to revive (and improve) comparative legislative ratings?

    The Carl Albert Congressional Research and Studies Center at the University of Oklahoma seeks applicants for its Visiting Scholars Program, which provides financial assistance to researchers working at the Center's archives. Awards of $500-$1000 are normally granted as reimbursement for travel and lodging.
    The Center's holdings include the papers of many former members of Congress, such as Speaker Carl Albert, Robert S. Kerr, and Fred Harris of Oklahoma, Helen Gahagan Douglas and Jeffery Cohelan of California, and Neil Gallagher of New Jersey. Besides the history of Congress, congressional leadership, national and Oklahoma politics, and election campaigns, the collections also document government policy affecting agriculture, Native Americans, energy, foreign affairs, the environment, and the economy. Topics that can be studied include the Great Depression, flood control, soil conservation, tribal affairs, and women in American politics.
    Most materials date from the 1920s to the 1970s, although there is one nineteenth century collection. The Center's collections are described on the World Wide Web at http://www.ou.edu/special/albertctr/archives/ and in the publication titled A Guide to the Carl Albert Center Congressional Archives (Norman, Okla.: The Carl Albert Center, 1995) by Judy Day, et al., available at many U. S. academic libraries. Additional information can be obtained from the Center. The Visiting Scholars Program is open to any applicant. Emphasis is given to those pursuing postdoctoral research in history, political science, and other fields. Graduate students involved in research for publication, thesis, or dissertation are encouraged to apply. Interested undergraduates and lay researchers are also invited to apply. The Center evaluates each research proposal based upon its merits, and funding for a variety of topics is expected.
    No standardized form is needed for application. Instead, a series of documents should be sent to the Center, including: (1) a description of the research proposal in fewer than 1000 words; (2) a personal vita; (3) an explanation of how the Center's resources will assist the researcher; (4) a budget proposal; and (5) a letter of reference from an established scholar in the discipline attesting to the significance of the research. Applications are accepted at any time.
    For more information, please contact Archivist, Carl Albert Center, 630 Parrington Oval, Room 101, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019. Telephone: (405) 325-5401. FAX: (405) 325-6419. E-mail: kosmerick@ou.edu.

Interview data have provided the backbone of many of the most important works in political science, but few graduate programs provide any formal training about how to conduct interviews, especially with elite subjects. For those who would like to learn more, the Political Organizations and Parties section is organizing a short course on elite interviewing that is open to any member of APSA.

The short course will feature an afternoon of advice and pointers from some of the most experience interviewers in the discipline, and is open to any member of APSA. Topics covered will include confidentiality, how to gain access, how to write up interview notes, how to code open-ended responses systematically, and discussions of standard issues of research design (e.g. sampling frames, validity, replicability) as they apply to interview data.

Our panelists come from several different subfields within political science. They have interviewed members of Congress, members of parliaments, civil servants, White House staff, party leaders, interest group leaders, and political activists. They have experience in both standardized interviewing as well as more open-ended, exploratory interviews, and several of them also specialize in survey methodology. Panelists for the course include: Joel D. Aberbach, Jeffrey M. Berry, David Farrell, Ken M. Goldstein, John H. Kessel, Beth L. Leech, H.W. Perry, Bert A. Rockman, and Laura Woliver.

The course will run from 1-5 p.m. on Wednesday, August 29, at the American Political Science Association annual meeting in San Francisco. There is no charge for the course, but participants must pre-register. Registration forms will appear in the summer issue of PS.

A limited number of $100 stipends will be available for graduate students attending the course. To apply for one of the stipends, students should send a vita and a one-paragraph explanation of how they plan to use elite interviewing in their work to: Diana Dwyre, Department of Political Science, California State University-Chico, Chico, CA 95929, phone (530) 898-6041, email Ddwyre@csuchico.edu. The deadline is May 15.