The State Political Party and the Policy-Making Process

Abstract

This research investigated the proposition that variation in the structure of the political party can account for variation in the type of policy produced. The conditions under which legislators of the governor's party supported his legislative requests in sixteen sessions chosen for different degrees of party cohesion were investigated. The findings indicate that there is very little correlation between the legislator's district primary or election competition and his support for the governor's requests. The Democratic governor is supported by legislators from the districts in which he himself has strong party support as measured by his primary vote. The Republican governor's support cannot be geographically located in this manner. With respect to socioeconomic legislation, the pattern of support for a successful governor does not depend upon socioeconomic variables within the legislators' districts, but if the governor cannot control his legislators, socioeconomic variables provide the major basis for the factions which develop.

GOVERNORS VS. LEGISLATURES: VETOES, OVERRIDES, AND POLICY MAKING IN THE AMERICAN STATES1

“…Executive-legislative reiations are enmeshed in the partisan makeup of state pdftics. Numerous authors have commented on the affect of this inter-branch relationship, particularly when the executive and legislative branches are held by different parties (Morehouse, 1966;1973;Lee, 1975;Wiggins, 1980;Copeland, 1983). Divkied party contrd should lead to greater conflict and consequently higher Ieveis of vetoes and overrkies.…”

“…Dye (1969), using the Prescott veto measure, found no real association between this formal grant of power and selected state pdicy outcomes. In a series of studies, Morehouse (1966Morehouse ( , 1973Morehouse ( , 1981 has found the veto to lag behind several more salient party and polftical characteristics in expiaining gubernatorial-legisiative relations. Each of these studies probe dimensions and impacts of the veto, but rarely examine in any empirical sense why the veto is or isn't used by particular state chief executives.…”

Improving the Harvest of State Legislative Research

“…Most studies in this area, as with those on the governor's role in agenda-setting, have focused on state budgets (Abney and Lauth 1985Lauth , 1998Abrams and Dougan 1986;Gosling 1986;Holtz-Eakin 1988;Lauth 1996;Nice 1988). While most of this research has been on the impact of the item veto, there has been some work on the circumstances in which the general veto is most likely to be used (Herzik and Wiggins 1989) and its effect on policy (Dye 1969;Morehouse 1973).…”

Governors and Policymaking: Theoretical Concerns and Analytic Approaches

“…The analyses of Bell (1984) and Morehouse (1973; are probably the two best examples of the difficulties associated with analyzing gubemator'iat agenda setting outside of the budgetary area. Bell's analysis indicated that only about ten per cent of the bills introduced in Califomia could be traced directly to the govemor and that the single greatest source of iegislation was private interest groups.…”