Party Competition, Modest Lawmaker Salaries Best Cures For Corrupt Politics
Wednesday, February 17, 2010 - 12:00
in Mathematics & Economics
Vigorous two-party competition and modest salaries for lawmkaers are key to preventing pork barrel legislation and other bills that benefit only one lawmaker's constituents, finds a new study of state lawmaking published in the American Political Science Review. the study examined every piece of legislation, a total of 165,284 bills, introduced during seven legislative sessions between 1880 and 1997 in the lower house of 13 state legislatures: Alabama, California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New York, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington. read more