Informed Legislatures: Coping with Science in a Democracy (Csia Occasional Paper, 11)

Informed Legislatures offers the first comprehensive examination of technical information and decisionmaking in state legislatures and recommends ways to improve science and technology support to legislatures through staff, state universities, and other groups. Megan Jones, David H. Guston, and Lewis M. Branscomb report on fieldwork from eleven state legislatures. While partisan analysis is necessary in the legislative process, non-partisan sources are vital to help legislatures triangulate among special interests. The book argues that maintaining internal expertise is effective in the ongoing struggle of state legislatures to be independent of governors and lobbyists. Practioners interested in state legislatures, professionals in state and local government, lobbyists, state legislators and staff, public university administratives and faculty, and scholars who focus on the role of scientific and technical information in political institutions will find Informed Legislatures to be an invaluable resource. Co-published with the Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University.