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Divided Government in the American States: A Byproduct of Legislative Professionalism?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2013

Morris P. Fiorina
Morris P. Fiorina
Affiliation:
Harvard University
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Abstract

Since World War II, divided government has become increasingly common in the American states. A significant component of the increase is the deterioration of Republican fortunes in state legislatures: after the 1990 and 1992 elections, for example, only five state legislatures were controlled by the Republicans. I shall examine the hypothesis that the professionalization of state legislatures makes legislative service more attractive to Democratic candidates and less attractive to Republican candidates, because full-time legislative service is incompatible with another career, and Democrats, on average, have less lucrative career opportunities than Republicans. Statistical analysis of post-World War II legislative elections outside the South is consistent with the argument: other things being equal, every ten-thousand-dollar increase in real biennial legislative compensation is associated with approximately a 1% increase in Democratic legislators.

Type
Articles
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 88 , Issue 2 , June 1994 , pp. 304 - 316
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1994

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