Advisory agencies avoid becoming effective power by refusing to measure their own success.

Evidence

Every law reform agency such as the New York Law Revision Commission starts out with the bogey of the ‘third house” threat influencing both it and the legislature it serves. ‘See to it you don’t seek to become a third house of the legislature. Remember that the legislature gives and the legislature can take away’ - thus spoke one of our original and wisest ex-officio members. We remembered, and we have not heard anything about this since 1940, because we ourselves killed this bogey, and it was right that we did. Hence, we keep no ‘batting average’ between bills proposed and statutes adopted. — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process, 45

Categorization

• XREF: ‘The legislature gives and the legislature can take away’ resonates with the reader’s institutional-analysis material on how advisory bodies preserve legitimacy by renouncing influence. — connects to: Organizations cannot neutrally evaluate their own practices — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 2027
• CANDY: The ‘third house’ bogey and the no-batting-average discipline is a crisp anecdote about institutional self-restraint.

Broader Connections

• Organizations cannot neutrally evaluate their own practices #expands (0.82) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 2027