Tonight and running through Sept. 13 at 7 p.m., PCN, the Pennsylvania Cable Network, will air a multi-part series on The Temple Papers on the Pennsylvania General Assembly. Each 60-minute episode in the special series will feature a discussion by experts, critics and legislators on topics raised in the five volume report.

The Temple Papers explore the Assembly’s history, achievements and evolving constitutional ground rules. They also survey changes in legislative structure and practice in Pennsylvania and across the nation as possible remedies to public discontent about governance in America. 

Co-principal investigators for the project were Joseph P. McLaughlin, director of the Institute of Public Affairs at Temple University and Rick Stafford, professor of public policy at Carnegie Mellon University.

"The papers are the culmination of a multi-year research project on legislative structure and practice in response to growing public unrest about the political system and the view that many hold that our legislatures have become polarized and unable to compromise," said McLaughlin.

The papers were requested and funded by the Heinz Endowments and the William Penn Foundation and are available at the Institute for Public Affairs website.