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Intra-legislative Communications in a Newly Emergent Two-party System: The Case of Education and the Florida House of Representatives, 1967

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Date Issued:
1969
Summary:
This research attempts to delineate the communications patterns within the Florida House of Representatives of 1967 in its deliberations concerning the issue of education. To accomplish this goal, a questionnaire was personally administered or mailed to all 119 members of the House. A return rate of 51.3% (61) was attained. The bulk of the questionnaire items were of a sociometric nature. To map the communications of the House, ten specific hypotheses were tested. These hypotheses concerned the relative importance of particular types of legislative actors and groups in the communications patterns of both parties. Administrative officials were also included in the analysis. The rationale for these hypotheses concerned the variables of age and/or size of the respective parties and were based upon the history of Florida politics. All ten hypotheses were based upon the contention that, as in other organizations and decision-making groups, in a legislative body there would exist a "practiced" communications pattern distinctly different from the "formal" organizational pattern. The pattern which emerged from the analysis revealed that members of both parties relied upon a small number of education experts or specialists for information, regardless of the experts' formal positions. The Democrats did not consider their party leadership to be an important information source while the Republican caucus --and through the caucus, the leadership--was a strong source of voting cues. With the exceptions of Dade and Pinellas counties, intra-delegation communications did not appear important in either party. While Democrats did not rely upon any Republicans for information, the Republicans did rely upon some Democrats (the experts}. No geographical splits were apparent in Democratic communications. The Pinellas Republicans were somewhat isolated from east coast Republicans in the information flow. The communications pattern between House members and administrative officials focused upon cabinet members. Republican Governor Kirk was most generally listed as an information source by Republicans while the Democrats relied for information upon Superintendent of Public Instruction Christian. Legislative staffs were identified as information sources by members of both parties.
Title: Intra-legislative Communications in a Newly Emergent Two-party System: The Case of Education and the Florida House of Representatives, 1967.
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Name(s): Callan, Dennis M.
Gatlin, Douglas S., Thesis advisor
Florida Atlantic University, Degree grantor
Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters
Department of Political Science
Type of Resource: text
Genre: Electronic Thesis Or Dissertation
Date Created: 1969
Date Issued: 1969
Publisher: Florida Atlantic University
Place of Publication: Boca Raton, Fla.
Physical Form: application/pdf
Extent: 76 p.
Language(s): English
Summary: This research attempts to delineate the communications patterns within the Florida House of Representatives of 1967 in its deliberations concerning the issue of education. To accomplish this goal, a questionnaire was personally administered or mailed to all 119 members of the House. A return rate of 51.3% (61) was attained. The bulk of the questionnaire items were of a sociometric nature. To map the communications of the House, ten specific hypotheses were tested. These hypotheses concerned the relative importance of particular types of legislative actors and groups in the communications patterns of both parties. Administrative officials were also included in the analysis. The rationale for these hypotheses concerned the variables of age and/or size of the respective parties and were based upon the history of Florida politics. All ten hypotheses were based upon the contention that, as in other organizations and decision-making groups, in a legislative body there would exist a "practiced" communications pattern distinctly different from the "formal" organizational pattern. The pattern which emerged from the analysis revealed that members of both parties relied upon a small number of education experts or specialists for information, regardless of the experts' formal positions. The Democrats did not consider their party leadership to be an important information source while the Republican caucus --and through the caucus, the leadership--was a strong source of voting cues. With the exceptions of Dade and Pinellas counties, intra-delegation communications did not appear important in either party. While Democrats did not rely upon any Republicans for information, the Republicans did rely upon some Democrats (the experts}. No geographical splits were apparent in Democratic communications. The Pinellas Republicans were somewhat isolated from east coast Republicans in the information flow. The communications pattern between House members and administrative officials focused upon cabinet members. Republican Governor Kirk was most generally listed as an information source by Republicans while the Democrats relied for information upon Superintendent of Public Instruction Christian. Legislative staffs were identified as information sources by members of both parties.
Identifier: FA00012584 (IID)
Degree granted: Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 1969.
Collection: FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection
Note(s): Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters
Subject(s): Education--Florida--Politics and government
Florida--Politics and government
Held by: Florida Atlantic University Libraries
Sublocation: Digital Library
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00012584
Use and Reproduction: Copyright © is held by the author with permission granted to Florida Atlantic University to digitize, archive and distribute this item for non-profit research and educational purposes. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires permission of the copyright holder.
Use and Reproduction: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Host Institution: FAU
Is Part of Series: Florida Atlantic University Digital Library Collections.