The Executive Veto in American States

Abstract

ECENT OBSERVERS have offered convincing evidence of the relative neglect of the state legislative process by American political scientists. In 1947, a committee of specialists called special attention to the governor's as an integral part of the legislative process in the and lamented the inadequacy of printed materials on the subject.' Although the has been rather thoroughly explored in a few states, virtually nothing has been done on a nation-wide scale since the pioneer studies by Holcombe were made more than a quarter century ago.2 The following study of the evolving mechanism of all fortyseven veto states and the two territories attempts to measure and evaluate the exercise of the in recent years.