Who Makes Wisconsin Laws?
Although lawyers are responsible for interpreting and implementing
Wisconsin's laws, they have not played a commensurate part in shaping
them.
The occupational composition of the Legislature has changed steadily
since statehood. Those changes generally have reflected Wisconsin's
changing economy. Farmers predominated during the state's early years.
Legislators with experience in the business sector as employers or
workers predominated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as the
state made the transition to a predominantly industrial economy. Since
about 1960, as the industrial economy has given way to a service
economy, the number of legislators from noncommercial backgrounds -
primarily teachers and government employees - has risen sharply.
Professional politicians who follow no other trade also have become a
permanent part of the Legislature. Lawyers have never controlled the
Legislature but they have been the only constant, relatively stable
presence in the Legislature over the years.
Nor have lawyers played a dominant role in shaping laws and
legislative culture. Most of Wisconsin's landmark laws were created by
academics and reformers. Lawyers generally have taken the lead only when
a major change in an existing legal system rather than creation of a new
system was called for. Major examples include the 1977 no-fault divorce
law and the 1983 marital property law, which were spearheaded by
attorney-legislators Mary Lou Munts and Donald Hanaway. Overall, the
bar's role in the Legislature has borne out Willard Hurst's judgment
that "increasingly the lawyer [has] made himself useful ... in the
patient attention to detail and the continuing adjustment and
improvisation required to effect great schemes" rather than in the
creation of those schemes.
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