Reforming Legislatures

American Voters and State Ballot Measures, 1792-2020

Peverill Squire

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English

University of Missouri Press
26 June 2024

Elections & referenda; Central government; Regional government; Political campaigning & advertising

Series: Studies in Constitutional Democracy

Legislatures are ubiquitous in the American political experience. First created in Virginia in 1619, they have existed continuously ever since. Indeed, they were established in even the most unlikely of places, notably in sparsely populated frontier settlements, and functioned as the focal point of every governing system devised.

Despite the ubiquity of state legislatures, we know remarkably little about how Americans have viewed them as organizations, in terms of their structures, rules, and procedures. But with the rise of modern public opinion surveys in the twentieth century, we now have extensive data on how Americans have gauged legislative performance throughout the many years. That said, the responses to the questions pollsters typically pose reflect partisanship, policy, and personality. Generally, respondents respond favorably to legislatures controlled by their own political party and those in power during good economic times. Incumbent lawmakers get ratings boosts from having personalities, ""home styles"" that mesh with those of their constituents. These relationships are important indicators of people's thoughts regarding the current performance of their legislatures and legislators, but they tell us nothing about attitudes toward the institution and its organizational characteristics.

This study offers a unique perspective on what American voters have historically thought about legislatures as organizations and legislators as representatives. Rather than focusing on responses to surveys that ask respondents how they rate the current performance of lawmakers and legislatures, this study leverages the most significant difference between national and state politics: the existence of ballot propositions in the latter. At the national level Americans have never had any say over Congress's structure, rules, or procedures. In contrast, at the state level they have had ample opportunities over the course of more than two centuries to shape their state legislatures. The data examined here look at how people have voted on more than 1,500 state ballot propositions targeting a wide array of legislative organizational and parliamentary features. By linking the votes on these measures with the public debates preceding them, this study documents not only how American viewed various aspects of their legislatures, but also whether their opinions held constant or shifted over time. The findings reported paint a more nuanced picture of Americans' attitudes toward legislatures than the prevailing one derived from survey research. When presented with legislative reform measures on which concrete choices were offered and decisions on them had to be made, the analyses presented here reveal that, counter to the conventional wisdom that people loved their representatives but hated the legislature, voters usually took charitable positions toward the institution while harboring skeptical attitudes about lawmakers' motives and behaviors.

By: Peverill Squire
Imprint: University of Missouri Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 43mm
Weight: 821g
ISBN: 9780826223098
ISBN 10: 0826223095
Series: Studies in Constitutional Democracy
Pages: 456
Publication Date: 26 June 2024
Audience: College/higher education , Further / Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Peverill Squire holds the Hicks and Martha Griffiths Chair in American Political Institutions at the Truman School of Government and Public Affairs at the University of Missouri at Columbia. Professor Squire specializes in American politics and legislative studies and is the author of 5 books, most recently The Right of Instruction and Representation in American Legislatures, 1778 to 1900 and The Rise of the Representative: Lawmakers of Constituents in Colonial America.

Reviews for Reforming Legislatures: American Voters and State Ballot Measures, 1792-2020

"Squire takes a brilliant approach by using ballot initiatives to study how voters want to structure their legislature. Voters are likely to approach a referendum vote more carefully than a response to a survey question and so their answers are likely to be more accurate. Further, the use of ballot initiatives allows Squire to study voters’ preferences over a much longer period. With more than 1,500 initiatives covering more than 200 years, Squire makes a significant contribution to understanding what voters want from the legislature."" – Dan Butler, Professor of Political Science, Washington University in St. Louis “Squire finds gold in a treasure trove of state ballot measures and public opinion research and delivers a thorough examination of how state legislators, voters, and the media influenced the evolution of state legislative structures, procedures, and service through direct democracy.” —Natalie Wood, Vice President, Policy and Research, National Conference of State Legislatures"