Recent Research on Legislative Staffs

In this article, I survey the literature on legislative staffing from 1983 to the present. Recent studies of the staffs of the U.S. Congress, U.S. state legislatures, and legislatures outside of the United States present new data and analyses. Research includes increasingly precise and sophisticated analyses of staff influence and power, and offers perspectives on specialized staff groups, legislative enterprises, and staff members as candidates for elective office. Interesting and significant questions remain for further research.