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The Content of Written Information Used in State Lawmaking

West Virginia University

What kinds of information do state legislators consider in their legislative deliberations? This article examines four dimensions of the content of the written information state representatives in Indiana, Massachusetts, and Oregon used in 1989: whether it was policy or political information, one-sided or multisided, in agreement or disagreement with the position of the legislator using it, and whether it had any hard or soft scientific content. Legislators are found to use information heavily dosed with political preferences, and they tend to look only at one side of an issue - the one with which they agree. However, they also use a substantial amount of scientific information.

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