Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T13:32:39.706Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Congressional capacity and the abolition of legislative service organizations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 November 2018

Andrew J. Clarke
Andrew J. Clarke*
Affiliation:
Government & Law, Lafayette College, Kirby Hall of Civil Rights, USA
*
*Corresponding author. Email: clarkeaj@lafayette.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

I analyse the relative influence of lawmakers before and after a watershed moment in the development of faction institutions: the abolition of legislative service organizations. Blocs of lawmakers in the House of Representatives were afforded official resources to advance their policy agendas between 1979 and 1995. In the wake of the “Republican Revolution,” however, these groups were categorically dismantled. Using a difference-in-difference design, I estimate the individual-level effect of losing congressional resources on relative legislative effectiveness. The results inform our understanding of faction power, legislative bargaining and evolving congressional institutions.

Keywords

American party factionslegislative politicsU.S. Congress
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Public Policy , Volume 40 , Issue 2 , June 2020 , pp. 214 - 235
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2018

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ainsworth, SH and Akins, F (1997) The Informational Role of Caucuses in the US Congress. American Politics Quarterly 25(4): 407–430.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berry, CR and Fowler, A (2018) Congressional Committees, Legislative Influence, and the Hegemony of Chairs. Journal of Public Economics 158, 1–11.Google Scholar
Bloch Rubin, R (2013) Organizing for Insurgency: Intraparty Organization and the Development of the House Insurgency, 1908–1910. Studies in American Political Development 27(2): 86–110.Google Scholar
Bloch Rubin, R (2017) Building the Bloc: Intraparty Organization in the US Congress. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bolton, A and Thrower, S (2015) Legislative Capacity and Executive Unilateralism. American Journal of Political Science 60(3): 649–663.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caldwell, CF (1989) Government by Caucus: Informal Legislative Groups in an Era of Congressional Reform. Journal of Law & Politics 625, 625–655.Google Scholar
Clarke, AJ (2017) Essays on American Party Factions. PhD Dissertation, https://sites.lafayette.edu/clarkeaj/files/2018/05/Clarke_Dissertation.pdf.Google Scholar
Curry, JM (2015) Legislating in the Dark: Information and Power in the House of Representatives. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Dewan, T and Squintani, F (2015) In Defense of Factions. American Journal of Political Science 60(4): 860–881.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DiSalvo, D (2012) Engines of Change: Party Factions in American Politics, 1868-2010. USA: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Feulner, EJ (1983) Conservatives Stalk the House: The Republican Study Committee, 1970-1982. Ottawa, IL: Green Hill Pub.Google Scholar
Fowler, JH (2006a) Connecting the Congress: A Study of Cosponsorship Networks. Political Analysis 14(4): 456–487.Google Scholar
Fowler, JH (2006b) Legislative Cosponsorship Networks in the US House and Senate. Social Networks 28(4): 454–465.Google Scholar
Glassman, ME (2017) Congressional Member Organizations: Their Purpose and Activities, History, and Formation. Technical Report R40683 Congressional Research Service, 7-5700.Google Scholar
Hammond, SW (2001) Congressional Caucuses in National Policymaking. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Iacus, SM, King, G and Porro, G (2011) Causal Inference Without Balance Checking: Coarsened Exact Matching. Political Analysis p. mpr013.Google Scholar
Jenkins, JA and Monroe, NW (2014) Negative Agenda Control and the Conservative Coalition in the U.S. House. The Journal of Politics 76(4): 1116–1127.Google Scholar
Koger, G, Masket, S and Noel, H (2009) Cooperative Party Factions in American Politics. American Politics Research 38(1): 33–53.Google Scholar
Kriner, DL and Reeves, A (2015) The Particularistic President: Executive Branch Politics and Political Inequality. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lucas, DW and Deutchman, IE (2009) Five Factions, Two Parties: Caucus Membership in the House of Representatives, 1994-2002. Congress & the Presidency 36(1): 58–79.Google Scholar
Miler, KC (2011) The Constituency Motivations of Caucus Membership. American Politics Research 39(5): 885–920.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Montgomery, JM and Nyhan, B (2017) The Effects of Congressional Staff Networks in the US House of Representatives. The Journal of Politics 79(3): 745–761.Google Scholar
Nyhan, B and Montgomery, JM (2015) Connecting the Candidates: Consultant Networks and the Diffusion of Campaign Strategy in American Congressional Elections. American Journal of Political Science 59(2): 292–308.Google Scholar
Ragusa, JM and Gaspar, A (2016) Where’s the Tea Party? An Examination of the Tea Party’s Voting Behavior in the House of Representatives. Political Research Quarterly 69, 1065912916640901.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Richardson, SP (1987) Caucus and Legislative Service Organizations of the 100th Congress: An Informational Directory. Technical Report 87-560. Congressional Research Service.Google Scholar
Ringe, N, Victor, JN and Carman, CJ (2013) Bridging the Information Gap: Legislative Member Organizations as Social Networks in the United States and the European Union. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Sin, G (2014) Separation of Powers and Legislative Organization. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stevens, AG, Miller, AH and Mann, TE (1974) Mobilization of Liberal Strength in the House, 1955-1970: The Democratic Study Group. The American Political Science Review 68(2): 667–681.Google Scholar
Vega, A (1993) Congressional Informal Groups as Representative Responsiveness. American Review of Politics 14, 355–373.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Volden, C and Wiseman, AE (2014) Legislative Effectiveness in the United States Congress: The Lawmakers. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: Link

Clarke Dataset

Dataset

https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/G3BKWG
Link
Supplementary material: PDF

Clarke supplementary material

Online Appendix

Download Clarke supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 625.6 KB