A Systematic Analysis of Members' Environments and Their Expectations of Elected Leaders

Abstract

It is generally agreed that legislative leadership is contextual (Sinclair 1990). In this article, I explore the context of leadership by examining the relation ship between members' political, electoral and institutional constraints and their expectations of legislative leaders. The study of 120 state senators in Maryland, North Carolina, and Ohio reveals that members look to leaders to help them attain the legislative goals inherent in their particular situa tion. The analysis reveals statistically significant relationships between respondents' legislative experience, political ambition, campaign expenditures, electoral vulnerability, party status, party strength, and partisan relation ship with the executive, and their expectations of legislative leaders. The findings of this study underscore the importance of membership environ ment and goals in explaining and defining successful leadership and en courage further study of the effects of environmental context on successful legislative leadership.

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