William D. Schreckhise - Böcker

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.

Lurking in the back of the minds of many students of American government is the question, “How well does the American political system work?” This book examines this in a way that is broad in approach and accessible to readers.Such an ambitious examination of the effectiveness of the American policymaking system leads to one inescapable question: how can you measure “effectiveness?” The answer taken in this book is to employ a number of different criteria. These criteria include:•the public’s attitudes towards the institutions of government•the degree in which all participate equally in political activities•the level of which public policy is responsive to public opinion•the ability of the actors in the process to create effective public policy•the extent the political system imposes costs and benefits on us equally, regardless of our economic condition race, gender, or ageIn doing so, this book ties together and expands upon numerous scholarly studies conducted on American public policymaking and uses David Truman’s Systems Model as a conceptual guide. Because of the large amount of data presented, the book will also serve as a reference source for others conducting research on American public policy.