Legislatures engage in three principle functions: policymaking, representation, and oversight. The first, policymaking, includes enacting laws and allocating funds. The start of the second decade of the twenty-first century found legislators debating issues as budget shortfalls, healthcare, higher education, and alternative energy sources. These deliberations resulted in the revision of old laws, the passage of new laws, and changes in spending, which is what policymaking is all about. Legislatures do not have sole control of the state policymaking function; governors, courts, and agencies also determine policy, through executive orders, judicial decisions, and administrative regulations, respectively.
In their second function, legislators are expected to represent their constituents, the people who live in their district, in two ways. At least in the theory, they are expected to speak for their constituents in the legislative chamber, to do the will of the public in designing policy solutions. A legislator seldom has much of a clue about public opinion. Moreover, on noisy issues, constituents' will is rarely unanimous. Individuals and organized groups with different perspectives may write to or visit their legislator to her their their vote on a certain law or a pending bill.
The third function, oversight, is different from the policymaking and representation functions. Concerned that the laws they passed and the funds they allocated frequently do not produce or create the intended effect, lawmakers will begin to pay more attention to the performance of the state bureaucracy. Legislatures have a number of methods for checking up on agency implementation and spending.
Now, how does this all fit in with how California and their legislature handle a certain objective within law? Its quite simple, with those simple three functions: policymaking, representation, and oversight. These are the basic fundamentals any state legislature should know.
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