Handbook of Legislative Research

The Handbook of Legislative Research, a comprehensive summary of the results of research on nineteenth and twentieth-century legislatures, is itself a landmark in the evolution of legislative studies. Gathered here are surveys by leading scholars in the field, each providing inventory of an important subfield, an extensive bibliography, and a systematic assessment of what has been accomplished and what directions future research must take.

This Handbook offers an inventory of research on one of the central institutions of politics. That institution, commonly referred to as the 'legislature' in the United States and by various other names elsewhere, has been the focal point of study by scholars so attentive to each other's work that they constitute something of an informal academic community.