POLITICAL-PARTIES AS VEHICLES FOR ORGANIZING US STATE LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEES

In this paper we assess the role of political parties in organizing st ate legislative committees. This research is guided by an explanation found in Malcolm E. Jewell's early work on responsible political parti es in U.S. state legislatures and in his more recent assessment of the conditions associated with state legislative control by strong politi cal parties. We evaluate majority party representation (MPR) on the me mbership of all standing committees in 10 state legislative chambers f or the last two sessions in each decade of the twentieth century. Find ings from two of our earlier studies of majority party representation on committees are also included.