This is one of the series of shows this year and next reflecting on the 50th anniversary of NCSL. For this episode, our focus is the legislative institution and how today’s legislatures evolved over the last 400 years.

Guests include historian Pev Squire, who sketches out how legislatures developed both from the colonial assemblies and from the territorial legislatures. We also spoke with three people who have spent considerable time in legislatures and given a great deal of thought to the institution itself— Kentucky Senate President Robert Stivers, Colorado House Speaker Julie McCluskie and Raul Burciaga, who recently retired as director of the New Mexico Legislative Council Service. They reflected on where the institution is now and the challenges it will face in the next 50 years. 

Resources

• NCSL Marks 50 Years of Service to State Legislatures, NCSL