Understaffed state Legislatures can give business theopportunity to gain an upper hand in the policymaking process

The recent announcement from high profile companies such as Google and Facebook that they will no longer be working with the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has brought the role and influence of the group into sharp focus. In new research, Alexander Hertel-Fernandez finds that states with more conservative legislators and those that viewed business as a key constituency were more likely to enact ALEC bills. He also finds that states that spent less money on their legislatures, and those where legislators spent less time on legislation were also more likely to enact ALEC bills. He argues that this trend undermines the idea that these types of ‘citizen legislatures’ will be more independent and that they necessarily serve the interests of ordinary citizens.