Outside Looking in: Lobbyists' Views on Civil Discourse in U.S. State Legislatures

The recent advent of gridlock and hyper-partisanship in the United States Congress has raised questions about whether similar divides are occurring in state governments, and if so, why? To find out, researchers--working in 2018 and 2019 under a National Institute for Civil Discourse (NICD) grant--conducted a survey of registered lobbyists and public agency legislative liaison officers in all fifty states. They received over 1,200 completed surveys. The researchers hope that understanding reasons behind politicians’ inability to demonstrate civility and reach bipartisan agreements will yield effective, purposeful interventions.

In Outside Looking In, scholars from across the country interpret the survey results. Using a variety of lenses, they present unique perspectives, revealing both regional and national insights. Chapters address findings on a variety of topics, including effects of political culture heritage on perceptions of civil discourse phenomena and the impact of legislative professionalization; sentiments about civil discourse and perceptions of their own state legislature among lobbyists; a multivariate cross-state comparison of the relative impact of political culture, professionalism, and term limits; presumed and actual impact of term limits on civility; a comparison of lobbyists with and without prior legislative service; and effects of the rural/urban divide and state-level inequality across the states.

Also discussed are the efforts by the National Conference of State Legislatures to advance the cause of civil discourse, and NICD interventions to support civil discourse in state legislatures.

Offering rare insights on discourse in state legislatures, this work is a must-read for political science scholars studying state governments, state-level lobbying, and civility in government, as well as for state legislators and public interest groups committed to enhancing civility in government.

Nicholas P. Lovrich is Regents Professor Emeritus at Washington State University. He served as the director of the Division of Governmental Studies and Services for more than three decades.

Francis Benjamin is the Information Systems Coordinator and Psychology Shop Supervisor for the Washington State University Department of Psychology. He holds an M.A. in Political Science from Washington State University.

John Pierce is a faculty member at the University of Kansas School of Public Affairs and Administration as well as the School of Public Policy at Oregon State University. He has co-authored or co-edited approximately 20 books, essay collections, and research monographs, including Public Knowledge and Environmental Politics in Japan and the United States, and more than 150 scholarly articles, essays, and other materials.