The United States Congress

by E. Scott Adler, Jeffery A. Jenkins, Charles R. Shipan

Overview

The new standard for a modern Congress course

Scott Adler, Jeff Jenkins, and Chuck Shipan bring current political science into the classroom in an engaging and accessible way. Driven by vivid examples and clear writing, this comprehensive text asks students to think critically about Congress’s role as a representative and governing body; its key rules, structures, and procedures; and its dynamic interactions with other institutions.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393428254
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	06/10/2021
Edition description:	Second Edition
Pages:	552
Product dimensions:	6.50(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

E. Scott Adler is Professor of Political Science and dean of the Graduate School at the University of Colorado, Boulder. His current research uses theoretical models of legislative organization to examine congressional agenda setting and committee power. He is the author of Why Congressional Reforms Fail: Reelection and the House Committee System, which was awarded the Alan Rosenthal Prize from the Legislative Studies Section of the American Political Science Association, and Congress and the Politics of Problem Solving. He is also co-editor of The Macropolitics of Congress. He has published articles in the American Journal of Political Science, Legislative Studies Quarterly, and Urban Affairs Review. Adler is co-PI of the Congressional Bills Project, which has compiled and coded data on all bills introduced in Congress since World War II. In 2006–07, Adler was a Visiting Professor at the Center for the Study of American Politics and Department of Political Science, Yale University. He received a BA from the University of Michigan in 1988 and a PhD from Columbia University in 1996.

Jeffery A. Jenkins is Provost Professor of Public Policy, Political Science, and Law, Judith and John Bedrosian Chair of Governance and the Public Enterprise, Director of the Bedrosian Center, and Director of the Political Institutions and Political Economy (PIPE) Collaborative at the Sol Price School of Public Policy at the University of Southern California. His research interests include American Political Institutions and Development (with a special emphasis on Congress and political parties), lawmaking, separation-of-powers, and political economy. His current work involves book projects on how civil rights policy has been dealt with in Congress over time and how the Republican Party evolved in the South after the Civil War. Jenkins holds a PhD in political science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an MS in mathematical methods for the social sciences from Northwestern University. He has been a postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University and Michigan State University. He currently serves as the Editor-in-Chief of The Journal of Politics.

Charles R. Shipan is the J. Ira and Nicki Harris Professor of Social Sciences at the University of Michigan, where he holds appointments in the Department of Political Science and the Ford School of Public Policy. Prior to joining the faculty at Michigan, Shipan served on the faculty at the University of Iowa, and he has also held positions as a research fellow at the Brookings Institution, a visiting research fellow at Trinity College in Dublin, and a visiting fellow at the U.S. Studies Centre at the University of Sydney. He is the author of Designing Judicial Review, is the co-author of Deliberate Discretion?, and has written numerous articles and book chapters on political institutions and public policy. He is currently engaged in an investigation of conflict between the president and Senate over Supreme Court nominations, a comparative study of antismoking laws in the United States and Switzerland, and an examination of the effects of bipartisanship on public policy. Shipan received a BA in chemistry from Carleton College and an MA and PhD in political science from Stanford University.

Table of Contents

Preface xix

1 Representation and Governing in a Separated System 2

Congress and the Core Democratic Principles: Representation, Separation of Powers, and Governing 5

Representation 5

Separation of Powers 7

Governing 8

Congress and American Politics throughout History 9

This Is foot Your Grandparents' Congress 10

How Do We Know What We Know about Congress? 12

The Plan of This Book 16

2 The Historical Development of Congress 18

Constitutional Foundations 20

The Antebellum Era (1789-1861) 22

The Early Years 22

The Second Party System and Slavery 24

The Rise of the Republicans and the Third Party System 26

The Civil War through the Early 1930s 27

The Civil War 27

Reconstruction and Its Aftermath 28

The Gilded Age and Progressive Era 30

Conservative Revival 33

Then and Now: Lame-Duck Sessions of Congress 35

The New Deal through the Present 38

The New Deal 39

World War II and Its Aftermath 40

Civil Rights and the Great Society 42

Watergate and Congressional Reassertion 44

The Reagan Revolution 45

Bill Clinton and the Contract with America 46

Deeply Divided in the Twenty-First Century 48

How We Study: ideology in Congress 52

Conclusion 58

3 Elections 60

Some Basics of Congressional Elections 62

The Institutional Foundations of Congressional Elections 62

The Constitution 63

Then and Now: Disputed Elections in the House of Representatives 64

Federal Law 68

State Law 73

Who Seeks Election to Congress? 82

The Rise of Congressional Careerism and the Electoral Connection 82

Ambition and Strategic Choice 83

The Incumbency Advantage 88

Institutional Advantages 88

Money 88

Legislative Redistricting 90

How We Study: The Incumbency Advantage 91

When and Why Do Incumbents Lose? 93

National Tides 93

Scandals 94

Redistricting 95

Internal Party Changes and Conflicts 95

Retirements: The Hidden Story 96

The Nationalization of Politics 97

Conclusion 99

4 Representation 102

The Basics of Representation 104

Is Congress Representative of the Nation? 105

Characterizing Representation 108

How Do Members of Congress Represent Constituents? 109

Legislating 109

Constituency Service 111

Speeches and Personal Interactions 112

Organizing Representational Activities 114

Communicating Representational Activities 116

Who Are a Member's Constituents? 117

Fenno's Concentric Circles 117

Then and Now: The Shifting Composition of the Geographic Constituency 119

Beyond Concentric Circles 122

How We Study: Measuring Representation 126

Collective Representation 131

Conclusion 134

5 Committees 136

The Basic Structure of Committee Government 138

Types of Committees 139

Committee Jurisdictions 140

Then and Now: The Evolution of Committees 143

Committee Seat Assignments and Committee Chairs 145

Committee Assignments and Attractiveness 149

The Evolution of Committee Chair Appointments 152

The Textbook Committee System 154

Policy Formulation and Committee Deliberation 154

House-Senate Reconciliation: Conference Committees 159

Oversight of the Executive Branch 160

Are Committees Still Relevant? 161

The Declining Influence of Conference Committees 165

The New Realities of Committee Oversight 166

How We Study: Committees: Theory and Evidence 168

Distributive Theory 168

Informational Theory 169

Partisan Theory 170

The Theories in Practice 171

Conclusion 173

6 Parties 178

Parties and the Organization of Congress 181

Electing Chamber Leaders 181

Writing and Adopting the Chamber Rules 186

Organizing Committees 188

Parties and Congressional Operations 189

Bill Scheduling 189

Whipping Votes 189

Electoral Support 190

Parties and the Congressional Agenda 192

Presenting the Party Agenda 192

Negotiating with the President 193

Overcoming Collective-Action Problems 195

When Do Parties Wield Influence? 198

Conditional Party Government Theory 199

Party Cartel Theory 200

How We Study: Negative Agenda Control 201

Preference Theory 203

When Party Influence Breaks Down 205

The Conservative Coalition 205

Divisions within the Republican Party: The Rise of the Tea Party 206

Then and Now: Partisan Polarization 208

The Republican Party's Role in Contemporary Polarization 212

Conclusion 214

7 Policy Making in the House and Senate 216

The House and Senate: Two Very Different Animals 219

The Roots of House and Senate Floor Procedure 220

Two Chambers, Two Governing Philosophies 222

Insecure Majorities 224

Stages of Floor Consideration 226

Moving Bills from Committee to the Floor 226

How We Study: Congressional Organization and Restrictive Rules in the House 228

Skirting Committees in the House 230

Debate and Amendments in the House 232

Senate Floor and Unanimity: A Different Kind of Place 233

Unanimous Consent Agreements in the Senate 234

Germaneness in the Senate 235

Withholding Consent: Filibusters and Holds 235

Cloture 237

Then and Now: Filibusters and Cloture 238

Amendments in the Senate 241

Reconciling Differences between Chambers 244

Conclusion 246

8 The Legislative Effectiveness of Congress and Its Members: Governing, Policy Making, and the Budget 248

Institutional Effectiveness 250

Authorizations 251

Keeping the Lights On: The Congressional Budget and Appropriations Process 254

How We Study: Making Historic Legislation 265

Individual Effectiveness 271

Then and Now: Individual Effectiveness in the Senate 276

Conclusion 279

9 Congress and the President 282

Congress and the President in the Constitution 286

Then and Now: The Relative Power of Congress and the President 287

Representation and Constituencies 289

The President and the Legislative Process 290

How Do Presidents Try to Influence the Legislative Process? 292

Are Presidential Tactics Effective? 302

How the Political Context Affects Presidential Success in Congress 307

Congressional Influence on the President 311

How We Study: Congressional Investigations 313

Impeachment 317

Conclusion 318

10 Congress and the Bureaucracy 320

What Do Government Bureaucracies Do? 322

Types of Agency Actions 325

The Decision to Delegate 327

How Congress Creates and Staffs Agencies 330

Agency Location 330

Agency Structure and Organization 332

Appointments 333

How Congress Influences Agency Actions 340

Statutory Instructions 340

Procedural Constraints 342

Budgets 343

Oversight Activities 344

What about the President? 346

How We Study: The Competition for Control of Bureaucratic Agencies 347

Hearings and Investigations 350

Then and Now: Changes in Congressional Oversight 351

Conclusion 353

4 Congress and the Courts 356

Congress and the Creation of the Federal Courts 359

The Structure of the Federal Courts 360

Appointments 361

Then and Now: Confirmation Votes 366

Relative Power of Congress and the Courts 369

How Congress and the Courts Interact: Response and Anticipation 370

Overrides 372

Pressure 376

The Structure and Composition of the Judicial Branch 376

Curbing the Courts 379

Do Judges Care about Congressional Actions? 380

How We Study: The Interaction of Congress and the Courts 383

Congressional Anticipation and Judicial Review 385

Conclusion 388

12 Congress and Interest Groups 390

Interest Groups in the United States 394

What Are Interest Groups? 395

Interest Groups and Congressional Elections 400

Lobbying 406

Why Lobby Congress? 406

Then and Now: The Influence of Business Interests 407

Whom to Lobby? 411

How We Study: Who Lobbies Whom? 412

What Forms Does Lobbying Take? 414

Does Lobbying Work? 418

Limits on Lobbying 422

Conclusion 423

Appendix A-1

Endnotes E-1

Credits C-1

Index/Glossary I-1