Democracy in Session: A History of the Ohio General Assembly

David M. Gold

Ohio University Press, 2009 - History - 602 pages

For more than 200 years no institution has been more important to the development of the American democratic polity than the state legislature, yet no political institution has been so neglected by historians. Although more lawmaking takes place in the state capitals than in Washington D.C., scholars have lavished their attention on Congress, producing only a handful of histories of state legislatures. Most of those histories have focused on discrete legislative acts rather than on legislative process, and all have slighted key aspects of the legislative environment: the parliamentary rules of play, the employees who make the game possible, the physical setting--the arena--in which the people's representatives engage in conflict and compromise to create public policy.

This book relates in fascinating detail the history of the Ohio General Assembly from its eighteenth-century origins in the Northwest Territory to its twenty-first-century incarnation as a full-time professional legislature. Democracy in Session explains the constitutional context within which the General Assembly functions, examines the evolution of legislative committees, and explores the impact of technology on political contests and legislative procedure. It sheds new light on the operations of the House and Senate clerks' offices and on such legislative rituals as seat selection, opening prayers, and the Pledge of Allegiance. Partisan issues and public policy receive their due, but so do ethics and decorum, the election of African American and female legislators, the statehouse, and the social life of the members. Democracy in Session is, in short, the most comprehensive history of a state legislature written to date and an important contribution to the story of American democracy.

Contents

• THE NABOB AND THE IGNORANT MULTITUDE: 3
• REPUBLICANISM AND REPRESENTATION: 17
• DEMOCRACY AND DISTRUST: 30
• DELEGATES FRESH FROM THE PEOPLE: 48
• A DELIGHTFUL CAPITAL: 78
• THE RULES OF PLAY: 117
• THE WORKING LIFE: 134
• WELLFED POLITICIANS LITTLE BOYS AND OTHER EMPLOYEES: 158
• STATEHOUSE SCANDALS: 170
• BANKS RACE AND DEMON RUM: 180
• LEGISLATION AND THE PUBLIC GOOD: 209
• DIRECT DEMOCRACY: 229
• THE BALANCE OF POWER: 249
• MIGHTY TRUTH AND THE PURITY OF ELECTIONS: 266
• LIVING IN COLUMBUS: 302
• GLASNOST AND PERESTROIKA: 323
• THE TRANSFORMATION OF LEGISLATIVE LIFE: 356
• FROM PATRONAGE TO PROFESSIONALISM: 386
• MILKERS WILD WOMEN AND PANCAKES: 404
• THE RISE AND FALL OF THE CORNSTALK BRIGADE: 418
• THE FEDS THE BUREAUCRATS AND THE SCOPE OF LEGISLATION: 440
• THE FORESEEABLE FUTURE: 459
• NOTE ON OHIO LEGISLATIVE PUBLICATIONS: 469
• NOTES ON THE NOTES: 475
• NOTES: 485
• BIBLIOGRAPHY: 557
• INDEX: 591

About the author

David M. Gold received his law degree and doctorate in history from the Ohio State University. He is the author of numerous books and articles on legal and political history, including Democracy in Session: A History of the Ohio General Assembly and An Exemplary Whig: Edward Kent and the Whig Disposition in American Politics and Law.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Democracy in Session: A History of the Ohio General Assembly; Ohio University Press series on law, society, and politics in the Midwest; Volume 42 of Series on Law, Society, and Politics in the Midwest Series
• Author: David M. Gold
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Ohio University Press, 2009
• ISBN: 0821418440, 9780821418444
• Length: 602 pages
• Subjects: History / Americas (North, Central, South, West Indies); History / General; History / United States / General; History / United States / State & Local / Midwest (IA, IL, IN, KS, MI, MN, MO, ND, NE, OH, SD, WI); Law / Legal History; Political Science / American Government / State; Political Science / Political Ideologies / Democracy