by Karl Kurtz
Following up on "The Sometime Governments Revisited," one-time Pennsylvania legislator and now long-time staffer Michael Cassidy recently sent me a 2003 speech by former Speaker Herb Fineman (photo) about Pennsylvania's efforts to strengthen its legislature in the late 1960s and early 70s. Fineman's speech is good and worth reading but far better is Cassidy's own commentary on the speech published in Commonwealth starting on p. 91.
Cassidy sets out in rich detail both the national history of the legislative strengthening movement and organizations involved in it and the Pennsylvania experience with reform. One of the best parts is his description of leaders' reactions to the "The Sometime Governments'" rankings of the states and a conversation between Rutgers University Professor Alan Rosenthal and the Citizens Conference on State Legislatures director Larry Margolis.
Pennsylvania, with its reforms only partially complete at the time of the study, ranked 21 among the 50 states. On individual criteria, Pennsylvania ranked 37 on Functionality (penalized in part for the legislature's large size), 23 on Accountability, 23 on Informed, 5 on Independence and 36 on Representativeness.
Predictably, these rankings were highly controversial and hotly contested in state legislatures across the country. Speaker Fineman and other state legislative leaders railed against the rankings when they were released. He argued then, as he did years later in his remarks before the PPSA [Pennsylvania Political Science Association] panel, that the best equipped legislature is not always the best performer. During the PPSA panel discussion, Alan Rosenthal reflected on the controversy. He said he had told Margolis that the rankings were" indefensible social science." Rosenthal reported that Margolis replied, "if you don't give them a number, no one will ever remember it." With the advantage of hindsight, Rosenthal says that the ranking system was "terrible social science. It was stupidity. But it was political brilliance." Fair or unfair, the numerical rankings were a great motivator for state legislative reform efforts.
I have heard Rosenthal tell this story before but have never seen it in print.
A rose from The Thicket to Michael Cassidy.
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