Wednesday, June 6, 2007

Legislature – Question 8

Question to be answered by Carsten P, Dequawn S, Matt S, Courtney T, and Erica W. What is legislative oversight and what are the ways in which the legislature exercises this function?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Legislative oversight is the “watchdog” of the state government. The legislature is responsible for how the government is running, which includes the spending of money, monitoring agency behavior, and so on. The legislature makes sure all things are running smoothly in the state government, making sure agencies are following rules and regulations, appointing and confirming, and performing audits. The legislative oversight process is important to the state government because it oversees all the administrative process in the government and makes sure things are being done right. This is done in conjunction with many other tasks they are responsible.

Matt Spivey

Erica said...

Legislative oversight, also known as watchdog, is the monitoring over governmental agency’s behavior and the expenditure of public monies. The appropriations process allows the legislature to question how agencies spend their money as well as question them about their operations. They also use oversight over the executive branch through requirements of the upper chamber of the legislature by requiring that Supreme Court Justices , as well as other judges, be elected or appointed by legislature. They also use accountability reports on how they are carrying out their mission, Performance audits are another aspect of oversight. The performance audits are used to evaluate effectiveness and efficiency.

Robert Botsch, USCA Political Science said...

Both Erica and Matt S gave very good answers summaarizing what the text says about oversight -- the watchdog function.

However, the text treated the legislature perhaps a bit too kindly in saying how oversight works. Many observers would point out that even though oversight can work the way the text describes, it usually does not work that way. The legislature does little of this routinely -- only really using oversight powers after some crisis takes place. The latest example of this is hearings about the way the Department of Corrections has been operating -- after a crisis. If you are interested in details, see the lead editorial in The State http://www.thestate.com) today.

Courtenay Turner said...

The legislature serves as the watchdog or legislative oversight of behaviors within the government. They monitor agency behavior and the expenditure of opublic monies. The General Assembly of SC oversees state government by the appropriation process, appointment and confirmations, approval of agency rules and regulations, performance audits, and ad hoc committees of the legislature. The legislative oversight really is important for our government because we need to be able to know what is taking place within governmental agencies.