Legislative Studies Quarterly

"Parliamentary Staff Size Around the World" by Daan Hofland and Simon Otjes

"A More Future-Oriented Legislature? The Impact of a Permanent “Future Committee” on the Temporal Focus of MPs" by Chris Hanretty and Vesa Koskimaa

"Tabling Debate: How Local Officials Try to Use Agenda Control to Stifle Conflict" by Mirya R. Holman and Tyler Simko

"Cheerleaders for Autocracy: Parliamentary Speech Making During Democratic Backsliding in Malawi and Zambia" by
Nikolaos Frantzeskakis, Alejandra López Villegas, and Michael Wahman

Before we dive into December’s publications, we’re taking a quick look back at November. Four new articles dropped last month -- each offering fresh insights into legislative politics. Check them out below!

3️⃣ State & Local Legislatures Prize
🎉 Congratulations to Rob Oldham (Agnes Scott College) for winning the Best Article on State & Local Legislatures Prize!
📖 “Partisan Governance and Minority Party Vetoes: Evidence from State Legislatures” (LSQ, Vol. 49: 617-648)

2️⃣ Comparative Legislatures Prize
👏 Cheers to Lotte Hargrave (Manchester) for receiving the Best Article in Comparative Legislatures Prize from the APSA Legislative Studies Section!
📖 “Earning Their Stripes? How Political Experience Shapes Gendered Policy Prioritization” (LSQ, Vol. 49: 429-454)

1️⃣ U.S. Congress Prize
🏆 Congratulations to Ayse Eldes (Princeton), Christian Fong & Kenneth Lowande (Michigan) for winning the Legislative Studies Section Prize for Best Article on U.S. Congress!
📖 “Information and Confrontation in Legislative Oversight” (LSQ, Vol. 49: 227-256)

🏆 The APSA Legislative Studies Section has announced its prizes for the best articles in Legislative Studies Quarterly!

This year’s winners highlight important research on Congress, comparative legislatures, and state & local politics.

A thread ⬇️

Rhetorical and Revealed Opposition to Compromise Among Local and State Legislators Policymaking in democratic governments requires compromise, yet polarized legislators face mixed incentives around compromise. These incentives also vary by gender and party, with women and Democrats....

Check out "Rhetorical and Revealed Opposition to Compromise Among Local and State Legislators" by Melody Crowder-Meyer (@davidsoncollege.bsky.social). Link below 👇
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Explaining How Subnational Politics Shapes Committee Assignment in a Federal Country: The Case of Argentina As in many federal countries, subnational politics is the cornerstone of Argentine political careers, and the Congress is a central point for multilevel politics. Although existing literature shows t...

"Explaining How Subnational Politics Shapes Committee Assignment in a Federal Country: The Case of Argentina" by Gabriel Levita (UNLaOficial USalvador) & Victoria Ortiz de Rozas
🔗 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...

When Politics Is Not Pivotal: Supermajority Debate Rules in State Legislatures The 60-vote end-debate threshold is a key institution in the United States Senate. Most winning coalitions require 60 votes, effectively giving veto power to a minority of senators. But do supermajor...

"When Politics Is Not Pivotal: Supermajority Debate Rules in State Legislatures" by James M. Curry (Notre Dame) & Robert L. Oldham (Agnes Scott College)
🔗 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

📢 We’re highlighting two new Legislative Studies Quarterly articles this week! 🧵

Geographical Representation on the Floor: Parliamentary Rules and Legislative Speeches in Party‐Centered Contexts The degree of party control of parliamentary debates influences which MPs take the floor. However, we do not know whether floor access rules matter also for the content of speeches. Drawing on a corp...

"Geographical Representation on the Floor: Parliamentary Rules and Legislative Speeches in Party-Centered Contexts" by Edoardo Alberto Viganò (Witten/Herdecke University)

🔗 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Human Capital Exiting Capitol Hill? Differences in Congressional Staff Turnover by Race and Gender Congress relies heavily on congressional staff to function and, as such, members have raised alarms about staff departures and their impact on the institution's capacity. We examine patterns of congr....

"Human Capital Exiting Capitol Hill? Differences in Congressional Staff Turnover by Race and Gender" by Alexander Bolton (@emoryuniversity.bsky.social), Hans Hassell (FSUPoliSci), & Joshua McCrain (University of Utah)

🔗 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Promoting a Diverse Bench: An Analysis of Elite Messaging About Descriptive Representation Existing work documents how senators use their official communications to explain their Washington activities and build support in the district. However, relatively little remains known about how sen...

📢 New in Legislative Studies Quarterly:
"Promoting a Diverse Bench: An Analysis of Elite Messaging About Descriptive Representation" by Jaclyn Kaslovsky (@washupolisci.bsky.social), Albert H. Rivero (UVA), & Andrew R. Stone (@olemiss.bsky.social)

🔗 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

📢 Lots of new research in Legislative Studies Quarterly!

Check out the latest three articles in the🧵below:

Legislative Studies Quarterly: Vol 50, No 3 Click on the title to browse this issue

🚨 New Issue Alert! 🚨
The latest Legislative Studies Quarterly (Volume 50, Issue 3) is here --- bringing cutting-edge research on legislatures around the world. 📘✨
Check out the full issue 👉 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/19399162...

Mechanisms of Checks and Balances: Appropriations, Congressional Committees, and Interbranch Conflict We study how committees influence policy outcomes in the context of appropriations. Since the birth of modern political science, the power of the purse has been recognized as a primary institutional ...

🔍 A spotlight from earlier this month in LSQ:

"Mechanisms of Checks and Balances: Appropriations, Congressional Committees, and Interbranch Conflict"
by Jeremiah Cha (@harvard.edu) & Jon Rogowski (UChicago). Access it at the link below.

🔗 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...

New open access @lsqjournal.bsky.social article from me & Veronica Judson shows that legislative districts with larger populations experience more partisan gerrymandering onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

District Populations and Partisan Bias We investigate whether the differing population sizes of legislative districts affect the ability to engage in partisan gerrymandering. We conjecture that larger populations facilitate partisan gerry...

🗺️ Do bigger districts make gerrymandering easier?
@bcburden.bsky.social & Veronica J. Judson find that larger district populations give mapmakers more “raw material” to distort boundaries, leading to less compact and more biased maps.

Read now: 🔗 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Are State Legislative Leaders Moderates? Spatial models of legislative organization predict that elected leaders will be moderates with respect to their constituency, the party caucus. However, empirical studies of leader positioning in Con...

"Are State Legislative Leaders Moderates?" by Boris Shor (@uh.edu)
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Success Denied: Social Class and Perceptions of Political Success The working class are poorly represented in democratic institutions across the world, despite substantial evidence that the public do not discriminate against working-class candidates and view them m....

"Success Denied: Social Class and Perceptions of Political Success" by Daniel Devine (@unisouthampton.bsky.social), Stuart J. Turnbull-Dugarte (@unisouthampton.bsky.social), and Matt Ryan (@unisouthampton.bsky.social)
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

The (Sometimes Untraceable) Origins of Policy Ideas in Congress: An Analysis of Seven Landmark Laws Research on lawmaking suggests enactments are constructed in various ways. Although multiple approaches are documented in the literature, political scientists do not know which are used more often. I...

"The (Sometimes Untraceable) Origins of Policy Ideas in Congress: An Analysis of Seven Landmark Laws" by Jeremy Gelman (@unevadareno.bsky.social)
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...

🚨New LSQ articles are out! There's a lot of exciting new research to dive into -- covering policy origins, class & political success, and legislative leadership. Check them out in the thread below now! 🧵

Party Considerations for Renomination in Pre‐Electoral Coalitions Pre-electoral coalitions are common across diverse political contexts. In this letter, I examine their impact on one of the most consequential functions of political parties: the candidate selection ...

"Party Considerations for Renomination in Pre-Electoral Coalitions" by @luciamotoliniac.bsky.social (Washington University in St. Louis) onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Dancing Around the Issue? Public Opinion and Strategic Vagueness in Parliamentary Speech Legislators use parliamentary speeches to communicate with their relevant audiences. However, we know little about how they adapt their communication styles to public opinion dynamics and political c...

"Dancing Around the Issue? Public Opinion and Strategic Vagueness in Parliamentary Speech" by Aleksandra Khokhlova (@polscileiden.bsky.social) onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

🚨 Two new articles just dropped in Legislative Studies Quarterly!
From strategic vagueness in parliament to party dynamics in coalitions — this month’s pieces deliver big insights. 🧠📊

🧵Thread below ⬇️
#PoliSci #LSQ #LegislativeStudies

Fresh insights on representation, party systems, and legislative behavior.

#PoliSci #LSQ #ComparativePolitics #Congress #Legislatures

Read more 👉

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...

🆕 New research in LSQ:

📌 Wealth and Policymaking in the U.S. House – Darrian Stacy
📌 Independents in Parliament – Ibenskas, Sałek-Lipcean, Golder & Sikk
📌 What Legislators Tell Us About Legislatures: Evidence From PELA-USAL – Alcántara Sáez, García Montero, Morgenstern & Rivas Pérez