DOC PREVIEW
SC POLI 365 - Legislative Organization and Gubernatorial Powers

This preview shows page 1 out of 4 pages.

Save
View full document
View full document
Premium Document
Do you want full access? Go Premium and unlock all 4 pages.
Access to all documents
Download any document
Ad free experience
Premium Document
Do you want full access? Go Premium and unlock all 4 pages.
Access to all documents
Download any document
Ad free experience

Unformatted text preview:

POLI 365 1nd Edition Lecture 10 Outline of Last Lecture I. Are Uncompetitive Legislative Elections Bad for Democracy?II. Predicting Elections Accurately by Looking At Certain Factors III. Representation in Legislatures IV. Term LimitsV. Legislative OrganizationOutline of Current Lecture I. Legislative Organization (continued)II. Institutional Power of GovernorsIII. Veto PowersCurrent LectureI. Legislative Organization a. Parties i. Institutional Leadership1. Senate President (usually the Lieutenant Governor): doesn’t do much as president of State Senate, other than to be tiebreaker vote, and President Pro Tempore (usually Senator of majority party who has been there the longest): actual leader of State Senate2. Speaker of the House has an institutional and party leadership positionii. Party Leadership 1. Majority and Minority Partiesb. Committees i. Standing: workhorses of the state legislatures 1. PermanentThese notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor’s lecture. GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes, not as a substitute.2. Division of Labor: divided by jurisdiction; useful for dividing up work and power 3. Many different committees: Agriculture, education, interstate communication, judiciary, labor, commerce, industry, medical, municipal, ways and means, fishing, forestryii. Interim Committees 1. Meet when the chamber is not in session2. Useful because it allows legislature to do their work before the session formally starts & allows them to be doing their duties yearround. iii. Conference Committees 1. Have a lot of influence over bills by rewriting, amending, reworking them2. Resolves differences between versions of bills between upper and lower house before they can be signed off on II. Institutional Powers of Governors a. Governors’ Institutional Powers Index: each state gets a ranking from 1 (weakest) to 5 (strongest) powers on each of 6 different factors:i. Number of Separately Elected Executive Branch Officials 1. 5 = only the governor or governor/lieutenant governor team is elected; everyone else is appointeda. 4 states2. 1 = 8 or more offices are elected separately a. Plural executive: power is very dispersed, rather than concentrated in hands of governor/Lt. governor 3. In this category, South Carolina gets a 1, we have 9 separately elected executives ii. Tenure Potential 1. 5 = 4 year terms with no limit on terms they can serve a. 7 states 2. 2 = 2 year term with no potential for reelection a. 2 states3. In this category, South Carolina gets a 4, we have a 4 year term with a limit to 2 terms iii. Appointment Powers 1. 5 = governor appoints people to a wide variety of executive branch offices with no confirmation from anyone (VT)2. 1 = no governor appointment, legislatures usually appoints people(GA) 3. SC gets a 2, governor can appoint, but has to get confirmation from the legislatures iv. Budget Power1. 5 = the governor proposes the budget, and the legislature can’t increase it (WV)2. 2 = governor shares responsibility, and the legislature has unlimited power to change it (SC, TX, SD)v. Veto Powers1. 5 = item veto, with special majority override2. 2 = no item veto (only package veto) but still special majority needed to override package veto 3. SC gets a 5vi. Party Control 1. 5 = over 75% majority of governors’ own party in both houses 2. 1 = under 25% minority of governors’ own party in both houses b. Overall, South Carolina receives a score of 3 for gubernatorial powers III. Other Formal Powers a. Oversees the implementation of policy b. Executive ordersi. Has the order to change executive branch operations of activitiesii. Can include reorganization of structure iii. The governor is limited by constitution or statute IV. Veto Powers a. Package veto (all states): all-or-none vetoing of a bill; the governor can either accept the entire legislation, or reject the entire piece of legislation b. Item veto (42 states): the governor can reject specific items in the bill, while accepting the rest of the bill into law. This is particularly useful for bills involving spending and budgeting. The legislature can override a governor’s item veto. i. Reduction veto (9 states): can only reduce spending on budget proposal, not increase it. c. Pocket veto (14 states): in most states, the governor has a certain amount of time to sign or veto a bill. If the governor fails to sign it, the bill will automatically go into law without the governor’s approval. But, if the legislature goes out of session during the time period when the governor decides to sign or veto, the billwill not automatically go into law. This process, the pocket veto, is a passive way for governors to veto legislation. In this case, the legislature does not have the chance to override the governor’s veto. d. Veto overrides: in SC at least 2/3 of each chamber has to


View Full Document
Download Legislative Organization and Gubernatorial Powers
Our administrator received your request to download this document. We will send you the file to your email shortly.
Loading Unlocking...
Login

Join to view Legislative Organization and Gubernatorial Powers and access 3M+ class-specific study document.

or
We will never post anything without your permission.
Don't have an account?
Sign Up

Join to view Legislative Organization and Gubernatorial Powers 2 2 and access 3M+ class-specific study document.

or

By creating an account you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms Of Use

Already a member?