- 2015-03-09 (x)
- Term limits (Public office)--United States--States (x)
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Show moreThis paper examines the effects of term limits and state legislative professionalization on the performance of state legislatures in the United States by analyzing two key measures of performance: bond ratings and the ability of the states to adopt their budgets on time. All fifty states are included in the study, although some states do not have general obligation debt, and some states do not adopt their budgets as a whole but rather in multiple bills, making them ineligible for testing. Both professionalization and term limits increase the odds of a lower bond rating at a significance level of .05 or better. Neither professionalization nor term limits has a significant effect on the odds of a state adopting the budget on time. Increases in the power of the governor appear to decrease the odds of better bond ratings and do not have a significant effect on the likelihood of adopting the budget on time. Party unity increases the odds of higher bond ratings and of adopting a budget on time.
Doctorate of Management Programs
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Show moreThis paper studies the effect of term limits and the professionalism of legislatures on four states and concludes that term limits appear to have a negative effect on the ability of legislators to navigate the legislative process on behalf of their constituents, and that the professionalism of the legislature may compound this effect. Partisanship within the legislature, unity of government and the strength of the governor are seen as factors in legislative performance. Effectiveness is measured by enactment of legislation and the management of the budget process. This is an exploratory study into the effects of term limits and professionalism on four states representing the possible combinations of these factors: with and without term limits and fulltime and part-time legislatures. This study is based on the perceptions of legislative actors as reported in a series of interviews. Further study is recommended to extend this study to most of the states and to add a dimension of time to the examination.
Doctorate of Management Programs
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