Critical Elections and Congressional Policy MakingStanford University Press, 1988 - 212 pages As early as 1831, Alexis de Tocqueville found the House of Representatives 'remarkable for its vulgarity and its poverty of talent'. In 1925, House Speaker Nicholas Longworth said, 'we [the House] were unpopular when Lincoln was a Congressman. We were unpopular even when John Quincy Adams was a Congressman. We were unpopular even when Henry Clay was a Congressman. We have always been unpopular'. One of the major causes of the House's unpopularity throughout the years has been its inability to legislate broad public policies. Yet for all the criticism directed at the House, we know that at certain critical points it has legislated major, long-lasting public policy changes. This book examines the House during three such periods of policy innovations: the Civil War, the 1890's, and the New Deal. How and under what conditions does the House - noted for obstructionism - create majorities capable of governing? The author asserts that critical elections create conditions in the House that enable the majority party to legislate significant policy changes. House elections are normally determined by local factors, but certain elections are dominated by national, cross-cutting issues. |
Table des matières
Introduction | 1 |
Slavery and | 20 |
Committees and Policy Making in Critical Eras | 115 |
Competitive Party Systems and | 136 |
Conclusion | 163 |
Classifying the Issues | 185 |
207 | |
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1890's realignment 53rd House 55th House across-the-board agricultural analysis Appropriations Committee average bill civil rights Civil War realignment coalition Competitive Districts competitive seats Congress congressional parties Constituency Bases critical elections critical periods Cube Law Predictions Deal realignment Demo Democratic Party Democratic seats Democratic vote differences Dingley Tariff dominant East North Central economic effect elec election results electoral farm favored Fenno figures House Elections House of Representatives House seats increase industrial interests issue dimensions Kansas-Nebraska Kansas-Nebraska Act kurtosis legislation major policy majority party mean swing mean vote mittee Northeast Northern number of competitive partisan party system percent percentage platykurtic policy changes political Polsby Populist President public policy publicans realigning elections Republi Republican Party Republicans gained roll calls safe seats second party system shows skewness slavery Southern standard deviation structure sults Table tariffs tion U.S. Congress variance Vote and Standard voters votes-to-seats ratio Whigs