How Congress Evolves: Social Bases of Institutional Change

by Nelson W. Polsby

Overview

From the end of the New Deal until quite recently, the U.S. House of Representatives was dominated by a conservative coalition that thwarted the Democratic majority and prevented the enactment of measures proposed by a succession of liberal Presidents. Today Presidents aren't necessarily liberal and the House of Representatives is not necessarily the graveyard of presidential proposals. What happened? Congress evolved. It all began with airconditioning.
In this entertaining tale of one of our most august institutions, Nelson Polsby describes how the Democratic majority finally succeeded in overcoming the conservative coalition, changing the House. The evolution required among other things, the disappearance of Dixiecrats from the House Democratic caucus. Dixiecrats were replaced by the rise of the Republican party in the south. The Republican party in southern states was strengthened by an influx of migrants from the north, who came south to settle after the introduction of residential air conditioning, which made the climate more tolerable to Northerners. This evolutionary process led to the House's liberalization and concluded with the House's later transformation into an arena of sharp partisanship, visible among both Democrats and Republicans.
A fascinating read by one of our most influential political scientists, How Congress Evolves breathes new life into the dusty corners of institutional history, and offers a unique explanation for important transformations in the congressional environment.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195161953
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	12/11/2003
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	9.30(w) x 6.30(h) x 1.20(d)
Lexile:	1550L (what's this?)

About the Author

Nelson Polsby is Heller Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley where he has taught American politics and government since 1967. A close Congress watcher for more than 40 years, he is the author of, among others, Congress and the Presidency, and Presidential Elections (with Aaron Wildavsky, 10th edition.) He is editor of the Annual Review of Political Science and writes often for the Op-ed pages of the LA Times, Boston Globe, New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post.

Table of Contents

PrefaceIntroductionI. The House in Sam Rayburn's TimeII. Toward LiberalizationIII. Causes of LiberalizationIV. Consequences: Toward a More Responsible Two-Party System? V. Overview: How Congress EvolvesAppendix: Methods and SourcesNotes

Editorial Reviews

"A fascinating history of how the House has developed." —The New York Review of Books

"Polsby's How Congress Evolves is crisply written and argued, moving logically toward an explanation of how Congress changes over time. It should be read by anyone serious about the subject of how political institutions evolve."—The Weekly Standard

"A new work on Congress by one of the most prominent scholars of American government in the past half century is a major event.... How Congress Evolves is an intelligent, eminently readable and accessible study that accurately summarizes how Congress has changed in the last half century and the reasons behind that change.... Nelson Polsby has produced another valuable addition to his considerable corpus of scholarship on American government that will assist congressional experts, undergraduate and graduate students, and the politically aware general reader in understanding the contemporary Congress."—Perspectives on Politics

"In this very readable, memoir-like book, the author develops a comprehensive account to explain the historical evolution of the U.S. House of Representatives over the past half-century. Unparalleled by related studies in its breadth, the book links several causal arguments to show how societal changes exogenous to political institutions have profound consequences within them."—Review of Politics

"Polsby, one of the nation's leading congressional scholars, presents a short, readable, and insightful book about institutional change that will have enduring value. This will most certainly become a classic."—Choice

From the Publisher