The Decline of Representative Democracy: Process, Participation, and Power in State Legislatures

Based on a leading scholar′s firsthand observations of legislatures as well as extensive interviews with legislators, legislative staff, and lobbyists, this important work describes and analyzes the contemporary state of legislatures and the legislative process in the fifty states. It explores the principal elements of legislatures, including the processes by which legislation is enacted, the impact of the media, political competition and partisanship, lobbyists and lobbying, the challenge of ethics, the role of leadership, and the linkage between legislators and their constituencies.

Thematically, Alan Rosenthal argues that despite the popular perception that legislatures are autocratic, arbitrary, isolated, unresponsive, and up for sale, legislatures are, in fact, extraordinarily democratic and becoming more so. He concludes, furthermore, that the dangers to representative democracy today are substantial.

The Decline of Representative Democracy builds on the growing literature in state politics and state legislatures. It also relies on the author′s participant-observer research, interviews conducted especially for this book, and his years in the field.

Many illustrative examples help to clarify the theoretical points made throughout the book, which in turn provide provocative sources of debate for students of the legislative process.

Alan Rosenthal is Professor of Public Policy and Political Science at the Eagleton Institute of Politics, Rutgers University. He has collaborated in activities with the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), the Council of State Governments (CSG), and the State Legislative Leaders Foundation (SLLF) and worked on projects and studies for legislatures in about 35 states. Currently, he is working with NCSL, the American Political Science Association (APSA), and the Center for Civic Education on the development and communication of a new public perspective on representative democracy.

In New Jersey, he chaired the Ad Hoc Commission on Legislative Ethics and Campaign Finance in 1990, was selected as the independent member and chair of the Redistricting Commission in 1992, and in 1993 received the Governor′s Award for Public Service. In 1995 Rosenthal received APSA′s Charles E. Merriam Award, which honors a person whose published work and career represent a significant contribution to the art of government through the application of social science research.

His recent books include Republic on Trial: The Case for Representative Democracy (Rosenthal et al., 2003) and Heavy Lifting: The Job of the American Legislature (2005).