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With much respect to our learned academic experts,
"legislative effectiveness scores" based on the status & importance of bills introduced by members is misleading and likely meaningless. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/09/17/members-congress-are-specializing-less-often-that-makes-them-less-effective/">https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/...
"legislative effectiveness scores" based on the status & importance of bills introduced by members is misleading and likely meaningless. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/09/17/members-congress-are-specializing-less-often-that-makes-them-less-effective/">https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/...
Academics who measure legislative effectiveness in this way are inadvertently misleading the general public, people who work to improve Congress, and the academic world. I& #39;ve written about this before. https://medium.com/@danielschuman/washington-post-s-money-cage-just-published-a-crap-article-measuring-legislative-effectiveness-b46913462fc1">https://medium.com/@danielsc...
Just some other things that need be considered:
- the # of bills and amendments that were the Member’s idea but did not have his or her name included
- How many ideas showed up in the base text of the bill?
- The output of cmtes and subcs
- the # of bills and amendments that were the Member’s idea but did not have his or her name included
- How many ideas showed up in the base text of the bill?
- The output of cmtes and subcs
- the bills and amdts the Member blocked — directly or indirectly.
- the bargains the Member struck
- the coalitions the Member assembled
- whether the Member moved the Overton window by taking a "further out" position
- the bargains the Member struck
- the coalitions the Member assembled
- whether the Member moved the Overton window by taking a "further out" position
And this ignores the roles of members oversight entirely, including how oversight can change policy.
Every time I see people say they are measuring "legislative effectiveness" I know that what I& #39;m going to see is something else entirely.
Every time I see people say they are measuring "legislative effectiveness" I know that what I& #39;m going to see is something else entirely.
These metrics are pernicious because they ignore how Congress actually works (from the people who know better), mislead people as to whether it& #39;s working effectively, and are used for political sound-bites in campaigns.
