Editing Legislative council (section)

==United States==
In [[American English]], the term "legislative council" has acquired a slightly different meaning since the 1930s. It refers to a joint committee with members from both houses of the state legislature, which supervises a staff of attorneys, accountants, and researchers charged with providing strictly nonpartisan support services to the legislature or to particular committees.<ref name="Teaford">{{cite book|last1=Teaford|first1=Jon C.|title=The Rise of the States: Evolution of American State Government|date=2002|publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press|location=Baltimore|isbn=9780801868894|pages=[https://archive.org/details/riseofstatesevol0000teaf/page/153 153]–157|url=https://archive.org/details/riseofstatesevol0000teaf|url-access=registration|access-date=August 25, 2014}}</ref> The concept of the legislative council was first developed in [[Kansas]] and was implemented by the [[Kansas Legislature]] in 1933.<ref name="Teaford"/><ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Davey |first=Harold W. |date=1953 |title=The Legislative Council Movement, 1933–1953 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-political-science-review/article/abs/legislative-council-movement-19331953/4206865B1000F85F89BF120F03363B9A |journal=American Political Science Review |language=en |volume=47 |issue=3 |pages=785–797 |doi=10.2307/1952905 |jstor=1952905 |issn=1537-5943|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Eventually, a majority of [[U.S. state]]s adopted legislative councils, but under a variety of names.<ref name="Teaford"/> Between 1933 and 1959, at least 32 states had legislative councils.<ref name=":0" />

Kansas still uses a legislative council, although it was converted into the Kansas Legislative Coordinating Council in 1971. Legislative councils operating under that name exist in the states of Arkansas, Arizona, Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, Texas, and Wisconsin. Several states use the term "commission" for the same thing, including New Jersey and Nevada.

A few states, like California, have a "[[California Office of Legislative Counsel|legislative counsel]]", not "council", who is appointed by a vote of the entire legislature and is thus responsible to the body as a whole rather than a "council" within it.