Party Effects in State Legislative Committees. Issue 4 (12th February 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: McGrath, Robert J.; Ryan, Josh M.
• Is Part Of: Legislative studies quarterly. Volume 44:Issue 4(2019)
• Page Start: 553
• Page End: 592
• Publication Date: 2019-02-12
• Subjects: committees -- legislative organization -- legislative parties -- state legislatures; Legislative bodies -- Periodicals; Parlement; Procédure législative; Système parlementaire; Étude comparée (Descripteur de forme); Périodique électronique (Descripteur de forme); Ressource Internet (Descripteur de forme); 328
• DOI: 10.1111/lsq.12235
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0362-9805

Abstract

Abstract : Legislative scholars have theorized about the role of committees and whether they are, or are not, tools of the majority party. We look to the states to gain more empirical leverage on this question, using a regression discontinuity approach and novel data from all state committees between 1996 and 2014. We estimate that majority‐party status produces an 8.5 percentage point bonus in committee seats and a substantial ideological shift in the direction of the majority party. Additionally, we leverage a surprisingly frequent, but as if random occurrence in state legislatures—tied chambers—to identify majority‐party effects, finding similar support for partisan committees. We also examine whether the extent of committee partisanship is conditional on party polarization or legislative professionalism, but we find that it is not. Our results demonstrate that parties create nonrepresentative committees across legislatures to pursue their outlying policy preferences.