American state governments have been corrupt and
inefficient largely because they have been organized for the benefit of
corrupt and inefficient men; and as long as they continue to be
organized on such a basis, no permanent or substantial improvement can
be expected. Moreover, any reorganization in order to be effective must
not deal merely with details and expedients. It must be as radical as
are the existing disorganization and abuses. It must be founded on a
different relation between the executive and legislative branches and a
wholly different conception of the function of a state legislative body.
The demand for some such reorganization has already become popular,
particularly in the West. A generation or more ago the makers of new
state constitutions, being confronted by palpable proofs of the
inefficiency and corruption of the state governments, sought to provide
a remedy chiefly by limiting the power of the legislature. All sorts of
important details, which would have formerly been left to legislative
action, were incorporated in the fundamental law; and in the same spirit
severe restrictions were imposed on legislative procedure, designed to
prevent the most flagrant existing abuses.
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