Session process shuts out Hoosiers

Yahoo

02-05-2025

The Indiana Statehouse - adorned with scaffolding for a roofing project - on March 28, 2025. (Niki Kelly/Indiana Capital Chronicle)
Editor of the Indiana Capital Chronicle Niki Kelly recently shared why the end of the legislative session is her least favorite season. Kelly wonders why the democratic processes that are embraced throughout most of the session are thrown out at the end, particularly through amendments with new or unpopular bill language. However, we argue that this is not just an end of session issue or a shortcoming of the current crop of state legislators, it is by design. This institutional arrangement largely shuts out the very people it claims to represent – the people.
We have a deeper understanding of this concept after we were fortunate enough to team-teach a course, Applied Political Philosophy, at the University of Indianapolis. By training, one of us is a political scientist (Shufeldt) and the other a philosopher (Davidson).
Lawmakers and their terrible, horrible, no good, very bad end of session
Our students started by reading political philosophy, including works from Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, John Stuart Mill, Isaiah Berlin, and John Rawls. We encouraged them to think about what gives the government its legitimacy, the appropriate uses of power, and what constitutes a compelling government interest. In a democracy, many of these ideas revolve around the idea of the 'consent of the governed.'
To apply these ideas, students tracked and analyzed bills throughout the legislative session. They were free to pick any legislation they wanted and were encouraged to identify bills they supported or opposed. We did not impose any restrictions or parameters – their selected bills ranged from relatively obscure (but important) to more controversial, contentious pieces of legislation (like House Bill 1393 or Senate Bill 10).
Like our students, any Hoosier can track legislation to better understand the legislative process. The IGA website has vastly improved over the years allowing citizens to watch committee hearings or discussion in the House or Senate. Our students were able to report on the progress of their bills from the comfort of their dorm rooms. The website is relatively up-to-date, giving everyday citizens the ability to see vote outcomes, a schedule for each day, and current bill language and amendments. Moreover, the media landscape in Indianapolis – in no small part thanks to nonprofit newsrooms like the Indiana Capital Chronicle – allows citizens to stay informed about what is happening at the statehouse.
However, being informed and being able to participate in democracy are not the same. Indiana has what political scientists call a 'citizen' or part-time legislature. Session began in January and recently concluded. This part-time calendar has a host of consequences – it affects who is able to serve (especially young people), it artificially speeds up aspects of the legislative process, and leads to large, omnibus pieces of legislation covering far too many topics alongside the inclusion of unpopular ideas without being vetted by committees, but perhaps most problematically – it makes it more difficult for everyday citizens to play a role in the legislative process.
We equipped our students with the knowledge they need to engage in citizen lobbying. We led them through the process of scheduling a meeting: sending an introductory email, making daily follow-up phone calls, and looking out for legislators once we arrived at the statehouse. Of our seventeen students, fourteen were able to have at least one meeting with an elected official (or their legislative assistant) on their own or to join a classmate in their meeting, and we are eternally grateful to the elected officials who took time to speak with our students.
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However, the casual relationship with time at the state capitol shuts out everyday voters. Many students lamented the near radio silence in response to their repeated emails and phone calls, the frequent last-minute cancellations or hours-long delays, and double-booked appointments. The typical voter cannot be at the capitol all day, every day, just to have a five minute meeting with an elected official meant to represent their concerns. Without paid lobbyists, citizens are less able to catch last minute amendments or previously thought-to-be dead bill language that gets revived, nor can they afford to wait a few more hours until the legislator is 'free' to meet. While our students at UIndy benefit from being a ten-minute drive to the state capitol, Hoosiers traveling from each of the four corners of the state may miss their opportunity for their voices to be heard.
Making space to hear everyday people is not the sole responsibility of individual elected officials. The limited availability of legislators is an institutional failure–one that arises from the design of the assembly and calendar rather than only the individual choices of legislators. Whether students agreed with their legislator or supported the outcome of a bill, a healthy democracy requires citizen involvement, and the institutions must be designed in ways that support this engagement.
Getting shut out of the process and seeing the IGA in action has led some of our students to grow more pessimistic – threatening to lower Indiana's already abysmal rates of voter participation. For some students, gaining the 'tools necessary to feel empowered to change government' (according to their reflections) only made them more committed to the process . Regardless of any individual student's reaction, the Indiana General Assembly must address the institutional barriers that shut out everyday citizens – they work for us, afterall.
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