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Electoral Reforms, Membership Stability And The Existence Of Committee Property Rights In American State Legislatures, Peverill Squire, Keith E. Hamm, Ronald D. Hedlund, Gary Moncrief

Political Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

One of the most creative theories advanced about legislative organization in recent years is Katz and Sala's linkage of the development of committee property rights in the US House of Representatives to the introduction of the Australian ballot. Katz and Sala argue that the Australian ballot – a government-printed ballot cast in secret that replaced a party-produced ballot that was cast in public – gave members of the House an incentive to pursue personal constituency votes. This, in turn, led to the rise of committee property rights as members sought to keep their committee assignments from term to term because …