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TitlesCHERIE
MAESTAS
Professional Legislatures and Ambitious Politicians:
Policy Responsiveness of State Institutions
Legislative Studies Quarterly XXV:663-90
This
paper examines the relationship between professionalism, progressive ambition,
and legislative responsiveness in state legislatures. I argue that professional
legislatures that foster and support progressive ambition will be more
responsive to aggregate constituency concerns than will less professional
legislatures. Institutions that attract progressively ambitious members create a
natural incentive for representation because legislators are motivated to
identify and respond to the interests of broad-based constituencies in
preparation to pursue higher office. Consistent with this argument, I find that
states with more professional legislatures and more opportunities for members to
progress to higher office have greater aggregate opinion-policy congruence, even
after controlling for the effects of electoral competition and alternative
policy influences.