5th Annual Idaho Public Policy Survey

Volume 5 of the Idaho Policy Survey contains four sections. As in the four previous survey reports, the first section examines citizens\u27 opinions on the quality of life in Idaho, and what problems facing the state are seen as the most important. The next section focuses on attitudes toward the federal, state, and local levels of government, as well as on the perceived fairness of different types of taxes and the degree of support for state spending increases in eleven broad service areas. The third section this year is a new one: we explore the public\u27s awareness of and attitudes toward a variety of initiative and referenda questions which may be on the 1994 statewide ballot. Finally, the last section explores how residents of the Gem State feel about a variety of specific policy issues. The report concludes with a methodological appendix that summarizes the procedure used to draw the sample and conduct the interviews

The State Legislative Process in Idaho

https://scholarworks.boisestate.edu/fac_books/1257/thumbnail.jp

Terminating the Provincial Career: Retirement and Electoral Defeat in Canadian Provincial Legislatures, 1960–1997

This article analyzes data on incumbent turnover in 103 provincial elections in Canada from 1960 to 1997. The author examines total turnover and the proportions attributable to retirement and electoral defeat. He notes that the overall rate of turnover in the provincial legislative assemblies is similar to that of the Canadian House of Commons. Further, voluntary retirement and electoral defeat comprise equal proportions of the total turnover. There are, however, important differences in the turnover rate and in its makeup, both by province and by time period. The author tests several models in an attempt to determine the correlates of turnover in Canadian provincial legislatures

Floterial Districts, Reapportionment, and the Puzzle of Representation

Because of recent Supreme Court decisions involving a more permissive stance toward a rational state policy (Brown v. Thompson) and the challenge of partisan gerrymandering (Davis v. Bandemer), state legislatures and reapportionment commissions are left with nebulous guidelines for the next round of reapportionment plans. This article reviews some of these issues of representation in light of a specific electoral technique known as the floterial district. Floterials are not widely understood, but they reemerged in several states in the reapportionment plans of the 1980s, and there is some speculation that floterials will be considered by more states in the 1990s. With this in mind, I discuss the specific nature of floterials and pose some problems (framed as puzzles) in the use of floterials

Professionalization and Careerism in Canadian Provincial Assemblies: Comparison to U. S. State Legislatures

The development of legislative professionalization is well documented in U.S. state legislatures, where it is closely associated with the advent of careerism. This association is partly responsible for the term limit movement. In this paper we show that Canadian provincial legislative assemblies have undergone a similar trend toward professionalization but that careerism has been less evident. Turnover rates are higher than under similar conditions in U.S. state legislatures because the electoral advantage of incumbency is substantially smaller in Canadian provincial elections. We identify five reasons why incumbents are less advantaged in the Canadian system

Dimensions of the Concept of Professionalism in State Legislatures: A Research Note

Over the last quarter century, American state legislatures have experienced great pressures to professionalize. Recently, political scientists have redeveloped an interest in studying the causes and the consequences of state legislative professionalism. In this note we demonstrate that the concept of professionalism has several different components. While these components are related, they are different enough that they may not be tapping the same dimension. It is possible for a state legislature to be professional in one dimension and amateur in another. Moreover, different components of professionalism seem to be associated with different socio-economic factors in the state

Reapportionment and Redistricting in the West

In Reapportionment and Redistricting in the West, Gary F. Moncrief brings together some of the best-known scholars in American state and electoral politics to explore the unique processes and problems of redistricting in the western United States. These political scientists examine the specific challenges facing western states in ensuring fair and balanced political representation. Western states tend to be geographically large and experiencing rapid population growth and the chapters in this enlightening volume discuss the changing demographics in western states, paying special attention to the rise in the Latino population and the effect this has had on reapportionment and redistricting. They describe the ways in which some of these states achieve redistricting through independent redistricting commissions—a process rarely found in other regions—and they provide policy prescriptions for the future.https://scholarworks.boisestate.edu/fac_books/1279/thumbnail.jp

Contrasting the American and Canadian Subnational Legislatures

In a recent (Autumn 1988) issue of this Review, there appeared an article entitled, Full-Time House, Part-Time Member? 1 It argued that Canadian MLAs are undergoing the stress of trying to reconcile the public image of their job as a part-time legislator with the fact that the demands of the job are full-time. This situation is not unlike what we find in American state legislatures and it spurred us to think about the types of people who serve in the subnational legislatures of both countries. Are they similar? Do they share similar backgrounds? Or do the differences between the subnational political systems of these two countries yield different types of participants

Campaign Finance in State Legislative Elections

https://scholarworks.boisestate.edu/fac_books/1254/thumbnail.jp