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The most disappointing finding from this research was the lack of change in the
adoption of the procedures included in the minority party procedural rights index.
Forthcoming research (Martorano, forthcoming), exploring a 40 year time period in 23
state legislative lower houses, has empirically shown that the index of minority party
procedural rights is negatively related the seat share of the majority party. That is, as
the majority party loses strength in a legislative chamber, minority party procedural
rights are increased. Despite substantial decreases in Democratic majority party
strength in the chambers under examination in this study, a corresponding increase in
the minority party rights index was not exhibited. The goal of future research will be to
explore additional southern legislative chambers in a similar manner and look for
similarities and differences to the results of this preliminary study.