Two Houses: Legislative Studies and the Atlantic Divide

L egislative scholars have a history of stepping back occasionally to examine the development and state of the subdiscipline ~Budge 1973; Gamm and Huber 2002; Loewenberg, Patterson, and Jewell 1985; Mezey 1993; Morris-Jones 1983; Pasquino 1973; Patterson 1989!. Many of these existing reviews, although valuable, are predominantly of a qualitative and subjective nature and are, in most cases, now dated. This paper provides a bibliometrical analysis of the state of legislative studies in the United States and Europe by exploring the content of eight political science journals.1 I looked at six general political science journals, three originating in the United States and three in Europe, as well as the content of two legislative studies journals—the American-based Legislative Studies Quarterly and the British-based Journal of Legislative Studies. It is generally agreed that political science lacks a common underlying theoretical outlook and agenda for research ~Garand 2005!. Scholarship emerging from North American and Europe is generally seen as having two very distinct “styles”—the former being focused on theoretical rigor and empirical data collection and analysis with the latter concentrating on more descriptive accounts of political behavior.2 For the majority of the North American community, political science is an empirical social science, while in Europe, political science, or the subject commonly referred to as politics, is more closely tied to its historical roots in philosophy or constitutional and administrative law. I explore here the degree to which such a divide exists today in legislative studies. Given the significant role that some consider legislative studies to play in shaping the wider discipline ~Shepsle 2002!, this analysis will be of interest to political scientists regardless of their particular research and teaching focus. The novelty of this article is twofold: I provide a detailed bibliometric examination of the state of legislative scholarship in the United States and Europe and investigate and comment upon the similarities and differences between legislative scholarship in the two regions. I explore questions as to the relative amount of output, the country and institution being analyzed, the subject matter, and the methodology employed. In addition, I use data on the level of interregional collaboration, as measured through co-authorship patterns, to provide further insight into the recent evolution of the discipline and the strength of the divide.