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THE SEMINAL YEARS OF THE MONTANA LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL 1957-1965
- Article from:
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Montana; The Magazine of Western History
- Article date:
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April 1, 2008
- Author:
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Copyright informationCopyright Montana Historical Society Spring 2008. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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AS THE TWENTIETH CENTURY DAWNED, most of the nation's state legislatures remained imprisoned by restraints imposed by mid-nineteenth-century constitutions. By the 1930s, however, a reform movement had begun, and within twenty years a transformation of legislative practices was sweeping the countr
y. The creation of bipartisan interim committees to conduct studies between legislative sessions exemplified this trend toward stronger, more autonomous legislatures. The legislative council movement, as it came to be known, began in Kansas in 1933. By 1958, there were legislative councils or council-type agencies in diirty-six states. Even so, there was considerable variation in the scope of their ...