Mary Kroeger is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Her research focuses on US state politics, American political institutions, bureaucratic-legislative interactions, and policy diffusion. She has been published in leading journals including the American Journal of Political Science and The Journal of Politics.

• 1. Introduction; 2. A Theory of the Interaction Between Legislator, Legislature, and Groups; 3. Bring in the Bureaucrats; 4. Legislating from the Outside in the Golden State; 5. Prepackaged Policy: Model Bill Use in the Fifty US States; 6. Complexity and Deliberation by Design; 7. The Electoral Connection: Democratic Implications of Outsider Involvement; 8. Conclusion: Democracy in the States.

'In a data rich study Mary Kroeger offers a groundbreaking analysis of when, why, and how state legislators rely on outsiders to write laws. Bureaucrats and interest groups gladly offer bills to be introduced and work to get them passed. A survey experiment shows the public's disapproval of this practice.' Virginia Gray, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill