State Legislator Job Duties: A Data-Driven Learning Guide
Goal & Concept
Goal
The goal of this exercise is to learn how state legislators do their job and the constraints they face in doing their job effectively while focusing on reelection. Frequency tables and crosstabulations are used.
Concept
While state legislators have the authority to make laws, appropriate funds, oversee the operations of other state branches (state executive and the state courts), and generally represent the people, most state constitutions are not clear on how legislators should go about accomplishing these tasks or how much time legislators should spend on any given aspect of their job.
Not all states employ their legislators in a full time capacity, and similar to their counterparts in the national legislature, state legislators are concerned with re-election. These concerns may impede legislators as they attempt to complete the requirements of their duty as a legislator.
Possible research questions about state legislator job duties include:
- Do most state legislators plan to run for re-election?
- Which party is more responsive to constituent needs?
- Which party spends more time campaigning and fundraising?
- Does re-election campaigning and fundraising take away from job performance?
Dataset
Data for this exercise come from the 2002 State Legislative Survey . Questionnaires were mailed to all 7,430 state legislators (50 states, 99 chambers) in February 2002. State legislators were surveyed on the importance of various factors in learning how to do their job, the importance of various sources of information available to them, whether they had authored any bills that became law during their most recent term, whether they specialized in single policy areas, and how much time they spent on legislative duties and tasks. Opinions were sought on the relative influence of party leaders and staff, among others, in determining legislative outcomes, and how much attention party leaders should give to various duties. Additional questions asked whether respondents followed their conscience or the wishes of their constituency when making decisions, the political views of their constituency, and which groups they considered to be their strongest supporters. Information was also collected on opposition candidates, vote percentages, campaign expenditures, previously held public and appointed offices, and future political aspirations. Demographic information includes sex, race, household income, religious preference, political party affiliation, and political philosophy.
Variables used in this exercise include:
- Legislator party (PARTY)
- Legislator chamber (CHAMBER)
- Plans to run for re-election (Z22)
- Legislative work as proportion of full time (Z21)
- Developing new legislation (Z18_2)
- Keeping in touch with constituents (Z18_5)
- Helping constituents with problems in government (Z18_6)
- Campaigning and fundraising (Z18_8)
Application
Legislative Characteristics
In the variable PARTY, state legislators were asked to identify their party membership . Response options were: 'Republican,' 'Democrat,' and 'Unknown or Other'. What percentage of the state legislators in this dataset are members of the Republican Party? The Democratic Party? Other?
In the variable CHAMBER, state legislators indicate in which house of the legislature they serve. Response options were: "Lower," and "Upper+NE" (Nebraska has only one chamber). How many of the state legislators in this dataset serve in lower chambers? How many serve in upper chambers?
In variable Z22, legislators were asked, "Do you plan to run for re-election to your current chamber when your present term expires?" Response options were: "Definitely"(1), "Probably"(2), "Probably not"(3), "Definitely not"(4), and "Definitely not - term limited"(5) . What percentage of the state legislators 'Definitely' plan to run for re-election? What percentage is not able to run for re-election because of term limits?
In variable Z21, legislators were asked to indicate what proportion of a full-time job is taken up by their work as a legislator. Response options were: "90% or more"(1), "70-90%"(2), "50-70%"(3), "30-50%"(4), and "Less than 30%"(5). What percentage of state legislators in this survey does legislative work as a part-time job (less than 50%)? What percentage does legislative work as a full time job (90% or more)?
Time Use by Party
To find out how much time state legislators spend on various activities, consider variables Z18_2, Z18_5, Z18_6, and Z18_8, which provide information about legislators' time spent developing new legislation, keeping in touch with constituents, helping constituents with problems in government, and campaigning/fundraising.
Look at the crosstabulation of Z18_2 by PARTY. Is there a difference between parties in time spent developing legislation? Which party's members were more likely to indicate '5=A great Deal' of time? Which party's members were more likely to indicate '1=Hardly Any' time at all?
Next examine the crosstab of Z18_5 by PARTY. Is there a difference by party in terms of how much time state legislators spend serving constituents? Where do a majority of both Democrats and Republicans place themselves?
Looking at the crosstab of Z18_6 by PARTY, is there a difference in how much time Democrats and Republicans spend helping constituents with problems with the government?
Now run a crosstab of Z18_8 by PARTY. Is there a difference in how much time Democrats and Republicans spend campaigning and fundraising? Are you confident in the accuracy of reports of time spent campaigning and fundraising? Why or why not?
Finally, consider whether time spent campaigning and fundraising is related to legislators' plans to run for re-election. Look at the crosstab of Z18_8 by Z22. What percentage of state legislators with definite plans to run for re-election spends a 'great deal' of time campaigning and fundraising? What about those state legislators who will 'probably not' run for re-election? What percentage indicated that they spent 'hardly any' time campaigning and fundraising?
Note: The online data analysis system (DAS) used on this site uses a system called Survey Documentation and Analysis (SDA), developed and maintained by the Computer-assisted Survey Methods Program (CSM) at the University of California, Berkeley. Documentation for DAS/SDA can be found on their Web site.
Interpretation & Summary
Think about your answers to the application questions before you click through to the interpretation guide for help in answering them.
Legislative Characteristics
What percentage of the state legislators in this dataset are members of the Republican party? The Democratic Party? Other?
How many of the state legislators in this dataset serve in lower chambers? How many serve in upper chambers?
What percentage of the state legislators 'Definitely' plan to run for re-election? How many are not able to run for re-election because of term limits?
What percentage of state legislators in this survey does legislative work as a part-time job (less than 50%)? What percentage does legislative work as a full time job (90% or more)?
Time Use by Party
Is there a difference between parties in time spent developing legislation? Which party's members were more likely to indicate '5=A great Deal' of time? Which party's members were more likely to indicate '1=Hardly Any' time at all?
Is there a difference by party in terms of how much time state legislators spend serving constituents? Where do a majority of both Democrats and Republicans place themselves?
Is there a difference in how much time Democrats and Republicans spend helping constituents with problems with the government?
Is there a difference in how much time Democrats and Republicans spend campaigning and fundraising? Are you confident in the accuracy of reports of time spent campaigning and fundraising? Why or why not?
What percentage of state legislators with definite plans to run for re-election spends a 'great deal' of time campaigning and fundraising? What about those state legislators who will 'probably not' run for re-election? What percentage indicated that they spent 'hardly any' time campaigning and fundraising?
Interpretation
It is important to look at the amount of missing data in each relationship and think about the ways in which that might affect the generalizability of the results - some crosstabulation tables have relatively little missing data, while others might have a great deal. In general, it is important to look at the response rate because a low response rate may affect the generalizability of results. The response rate of this survey was 40%.
Reading the results: the numbers in each cell of the crosstabulation tables show the percent of the people who fall into the overlapping categories, followed by the actual number of people that represents in this sample. The coloring in the tables demonstrates how the observed numbers in each cell compares to the expected number if there were no association between the two variables. The accompanying bar and pie charts display the patterns visually as well.
The use of column percentages, as shown in these tables, allows for the comparison of answers to the "outcome" of interest across values of the grouping variable. For example, 44.3% of those state legislators who said they are 'Probably not' running for re-election said they spend 'Hardly Any' time campaigning and fundraising.
48.2% of the state legislators are Republicans. 50.8% are Democrats. Only 1% said 'Unknown or Other.'
2,182 (73.2%) serve in lower chambers. 800 (26.8%) serve in upper chambers.
66.6% 'Definitely' plan to run for re-election. 5.6% said they cannot run for re-election because of term limits.
734 (25.1%) of the respondents do legislative work as a part-time job (less than .5 FTE). 677 (23.1%) do legislative work as a full time job (.9 FTE or more).
Republican and Democratic state legislators are very similar in the amount of time they report spending on developing new legislation, staying in touch with constituents, and helping constituents. Democrats (14%) were slightly more likely than Republicans (10.2%) to indicate that they spent a great deal of time developing new legislation. Democrats were also somewhat more likely than Republicans to report that they spent a great deal of time both staying in touch with constituents (43% and 37.9%, respectively) and helping constituents (46.1% and 38.2%). Very few Democrats or Republicans reported that they spent 'hardly any' time on any of these three tasks.
There do seem to be some differences in the amount of time that Republicans and Democrats spend campaigning and fundraising despite the fact that the majority of both parties are likely to place themselves toward the 'hardly any time' end of the scale. 61.4% of Republicans place themselves in one of the two lowest categories indicating that they spend very little time on these tasks, while 52.1% of Democrats place themselves in these categories. Democrats are slightly more likely than Republicans (17.7% versus 13.9%) to place themselves in one of the two higher categories indicating that they spend quite a bit of time on these tasks. When compared to the previous analyses where the questions concerned actual job duties, state legislators may be less willing to admit that they spend a lot of time engaging in these activities, given that campaigning and fundraising is not in their job description.
Of those state legislators who are definitely planning to run for re-election, 4.7% said they spent a great deal of time campaigning and fundraising. 44.3% of those who indicated that they will 'Probably not' going to run for re-election said they spent 'hardly any' time campaigning and fundraising.
Summary
When it comes to fulfilling job duties, the state legislators in this dataset perceive that they spend a lot of time getting work done; there is very little difference between Democrats and Republicans in this respect. However, when it comes to tasks that benefit a possible bid for re-election like campaigning and fundraising, Republicans are slightly more likely than Democrats to say they spend less time engaging in these activities.
Of course, we cannot know how much time the state legislators actually spend making laws, appropriating funds, overseeing the operations of the other state branches (state executive and the state courts), and generally representing the people in the district. These results represent self-reports by state legislators. Further research might follow average legislators to see how they actually spend their time.
Bibliography
We have compiled a list of references that might be useful to instructors and students wishing to further explore this topic. All were chosen because they relate to the topic of study, whether or not they use the specific dataset that was used in this exercise. Some relate directly to the concepts as defined by the exercise, others explore the topic more broadly either conceptually or empirically. For even more resources, try a key word search in the ICPSR Bibliography!
CITATION: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research. State Legislator Job Duties: A Data-Driven Learning Guide. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2009-04-16. Doi:10.3886/statepolitics
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