Party, Process, and Political Change in Congress, Volume 1: New Perspectives on the History of Congress

by David W. Brady (Editor), Mathew D. McCubbins (Editor)

Overview

In recent decades, political scientists have produced an enormous body of scholarship dealing with the U.S. Congress, and in particular congressional organization. However, most of this research has focused on Congress in the twentieth century—especially the post-New Deal era—and the long history of Congress has been largely neglected. The contributors to this book demonstrate that this inattention to congressional history has denied us many rich opportunities to more fully understand the evolution and functioning of the modern Congress.

In striking contrast to the modern era, which is marked by only modest partisan realignment and institutional change, the period preceding the New Deal was a time of rapid and substantial change in Congress. During the nation’s first 150 years, parties emerged, developed, and realigned; the standing rules of the House and Senate expanded and underwent profound changes; the workload of Congress increased dramatically; and both houses grew considerably in size.

Studying history is valuable in large part because it allows scholars to observe greater variation in many of the parameters of their theories, and to test their core assumptions. A historical approach pushes scholars to recognize and confront the limits of their theories, resulting in theories that have increased validity and broader applicability. Thus, incorporating history into political science gives us a more dynamic view of Congress than the relatively static picture that emerges from a strict focus on recent periods.

Each contributor engages one of three general questions that have animated the literature on congressional politics in recent years: What is the role of party organizations in policy making? In what ways have congressional process and procedure changed over the years? How does congressional process and procedure affect congressional politics and policy?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780804745703
Publisher:	Stanford University Press
Publication date:	08/20/2002
Series:	Social Science History
Edition description:	1
Pages:	576
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

David W. Brady is Bowen H. and Janice Arthur McCoy Professor of Political Science in the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Among his books are Continuity and Change in House Elections (with John F. Cogan and Morris P. Fiorina, Stanford, 2000) and Critical Elections and Congressional Policy Making (Stanford, 1988). Mathew D. McCubbins is Professor of Political Science at the University of California, San Diego. His work on Congress includes Legislative Leviathan (with Gary W. Cox).

Table of Contents

	Contributors	ix
	Tables	xv
	Figures	xix
	Acknowledgments	xxii
1.	Party, Process, and Political Change: New Perspectives on the History of Congress	1
Part I	Parties, Committees, and Political Change in Congress
2.	The Historical Variability in Conditional Party Government, 1877-1994	17
3.	Do Parties Matter?	36
4.	Party and Preference in Congressional Decision Making: Roll Call Voting in the House of Representatives, 1889-1999	64
5.	Agenda Power in the U.S. House of Representatives, 1877-1986	107
6.	Agenda Power in the U.S. Senate, 1877-1986	146
7.	Party Loyalty and Committee Leadership in the House, 1921-40	166
Part II	The Evolution and Choice of Congressional Institutions
8.	Order from Chaos: The Transformation of the Committee System in the House, 1816-22	195
9.	Leadership and Institutional Change in the Nineteenth-Century House	237
10.	Institutional Evolution and the Rise of the Tuesday-Thursday Club in the House of Representatives	270
11.	Policy Leadership and the Development of the Modern Senate	287
Part III	Policy Choice and Congressional Institutions
12.	Why Congress? What the Failure of the Confederation Congress and the Survival of the Federal Congress Tell Us About the New Institutionalism	315
13.	Agenda Manipulation, Strategic Voting, and Legislative Details in the Compromise of 1850	343
14.	Congress and the Territorial Expansion of the United States	392
15.	Representation of the Antebellum South in the House of Representatives: Measuring the Impact of the Three-Fifths Clause	452
	Afterword: History as a Laboratory	471
	Notes	473
	Works Cited	501
	Name Index	525
	Subject Index	533

Recipe

In recent decades, political scientists have produced an enormous body of scholarship dealing with the U.S. Congress, and in particular congressional organization. However, most of this research has focused on Congress in the twentieth century—especially the post-New Deal era—and the long history of Congress has been largely neglected. The contributors to this book demonstrate that this inattention to congressional history has denied us many rich opportunities to more fully understand the evolution and functioning of the modern Congress.
In striking contrast to the modern era, which is marked by only modest partisan realignment and institutional change, the period preceding the New Deal was a time of rapid and substantial change in Congress. During the nation’s first 150 years, parties emerged, developed, and realigned; the standing rules of the House and Senate expanded and underwent profound changes; the workload of Congress increased dramatically; and both houses grew considerably in size.
Studying history is valuable in large part because it allows scholars to observe greater variation in many of the parameters of their theories, and to test their core assumptions. A historical approach pushes scholars to recognize and confront the limits of their theories, resulting in theories that have increased validity and broader applicability. Thus, incorporating history into political science gives us a more dynamic view of Congress than the relatively static picture that emerges from a strict focus on recent periods.
Each contributor engages one of three general questions that have animated the literature on congressional politics in recent years:What is the role of party organizations in policy making? In what ways have congressional process and procedure changed over the years? How does congressional process and procedure affect congressional politics and policy?

Editorial Reviews

"All of these essays constitute high-powered marriages between sophisticated quantitative methods and powerful analytical theory."

Kenneth A. Shepsle

" Policy, Process, and Political Change pulls together some of the leading scholars in partisanship and the historical development of congressional politics to offer an invaluable addition to the library of any student of Congress."

APSA Legislative Studies Section Newsletter

"Policy, Process, and Political Change pulls together some of the leading scholars in partisanship and the historical development of congressional politics to offer an invaluable addition to the library of any student of Congress."—APSA Legislative Studies Section Newsletter

"All of these essays constitute high-powered marriages between sophisticated quantitative methods and powerful analytical theory."—Kenneth A. Shepsle, Harvard University

From the Publisher

"All of these essays constitute high-powered marriages between sophisticated quantitative methods and powerful analytical theory."

Harvard University - Kenneth A. Shepsle