Approval Ratings for State Legislatures

SurveyUSA News Poll #17899 gives an approval rating of 18% for the state legislature. This makes them less popular than the governor(29%). I was interested in this figure because a recent article in the Economist gives an account of the troubles they are having in California. Their legislature has an approval rating of 14%.

Granted Kansas has a more popular legislature, but they also have a more popular governor(28% and 55% respectively). Voters are likely responding to conditions in the various states. What these polls reveal is general dissatisfaction with the legislative branch of government.

I suggest that this is a result of the legislative branch being powerful and yet relatively unaccountable. Individual legislators are not held responsible for the poor performance of the legislature.

In contrast the executive branch is quite accountable. The president and state governors are all elected. Their powers are spelled out completely by the constitutions of the U.S. and the several states respectively.

The Supreme Court is notably unaccountable. However, it is so constructed as to avoid rapid changes in ideology. It is also quite limited in power. At the state level judges are often elected.

It is interesting that although the legislative branch at both the federal and state level is consistently the least popular of the three branches of government, and yet no one seems to be suggesting that we need to radically alter the way that the legislatures are selected.