Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-04T23:32:14.718Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Agenda Control, Committee Capture, and the Dynamics of Institutional Politics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 December 1986

Jonathan Bendor  and
Terry M. Moe
Jonathan Bendor
Affiliation:
Stanford University
Terry M. Moe
Affiliation:
Stanford University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Most models of agenda control examine dyadic relations—for example, those between a committee and the floor of a legislature. Such relations, however, are always embedded in a larger context, namely, a political environment composed of voters and interest groups. In this paper we model agenda setters (a legislative committee) as decision makers with limited cognitive abilities who adjust over time to their larger political environment. The legislators' policy positions are endogenous, reflecting the relative strengths of voters wielding the district-specific resource of votes and of interest groups wielding the transferable resource of money. The resulting outcomes indicate that neoclassical models of voting and pluralist models of group influence have each told part of the story. When only votes matter, our boundedly rational agents grope toward equilibria close to those of neoclassical models; however, when mobile resources matter as well, the outcomes depart systematically from those of previous models. In particular, interest groups can make themselves worse off by capturing the committee. The results suggest that agenda control is less powerful than conventionally believed and point toward conditions shaping its effectiveness—conditions highlighting the distinctive contributions of pluralist and neoclassical thinking to a broader theory of political institutions.

Type
Articles
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 80 , Issue 4 , December 1986 , pp. 1187 - 1207
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1986

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

Alchian, Armen A., and Demsetz, Harold. 1972. Production, Information Costs, and Economic Organization. American Economic Review, 62:777–95.Google Scholar
Becker, Gary. 1983. A Theory of Competition Among Pressure Groups for Political Influence. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 98:371–400.10.2307/1886017CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bendor, Jonathan, and Moe, Terry M.. 1985. An Adaptive Model of Bureaucratic Politics. American Political Science Review, 79:755–74.10.2307/1956842CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coase, Ronald. 1937. The Nature of the Firm. Econometrica, 4:386–405.Google Scholar
Denzau, Arthur, and Mackay, Robert. 1983. Gatekeeping and Monopoly Power of Committees: An Analysis of Sincere and Sophisticated Behavior. American Journal of Political Science, 27:740–61.10.2307/2110891CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Denzau, Arthur, and Munger, Michael. 1986. Legislators and Interest Groups. American Political Science Review, 80: 89–119.10.2307/1957085CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Downs, Anthony. 1957. An Electoral Theory of Democracy. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Drew, Elizabeth. 1983. Politics and Money. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Enelow, James, and Hinich, Melvin. 1984a. Asymmetric Preferences and the Theory of Agenda Control. State University of New York at Stony Brook. Manuscript.Google Scholar
Enelow, James, and Hinich, Melvin. 1984b. The Spatial Theory of Voting. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ferejohn, John, Fiorina, Morris, and McKelvey, Richard. 1984. A Theory of Legislative Behavior on Pork Barrel Legislation. Working Paper, Hoover Institution Domestic Studies Program, Stanford University.Google Scholar
Hess, James D. 1983. The Economics of Organization. New York: North-Holland.Google Scholar
Jacobson, Gary. 1980. Money in Congressional Elections. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Krehbiel, Keith. 1986. Sophisticated and Myopic Behavior in Legislative Committees: An Experimental Study. American Journal of Political Science. Forthcoming.10.2307/2111089CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krehbiel, Keith, n.d. Sophisticated Committees and Structure-Induced Equilibria in Congress. In McCubbins, Matthew and Sullivan, Terry, eds., Congress: Structure and Policy. New York: Cambridge University Press. Forthcoming.Google Scholar
McKelvey, Richard. 1976. Intransitivities in Formal Voting Models and Some Implications for Agenda Control. Journal of Economic Theory, 12:472–82.10.1016/0022-0531(76)90040-5CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, Gary. 1984. An Experimental Comparison of Economic and Political Exchange. Presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Moe, Terry M. 1984. The New Economics of Organization. American Journal of Political Science, 28:739–77.10.2307/2110997CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Poole, Keith, and Romer, Thomas. 1984. Patterns of Political Action Committee Contributions to the 1980 Campaigns for the U.S. House of Representatives. Working Paper No. 42-83-84, Graduate School of Industrial Administration, Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA.Google Scholar
Riker, William. 1982. Liberalism Against Populism. San Francisco: Freeman.Google Scholar
Romer, Thomas, and Rosenthal, Howard. 1978. Political Resource Allocation Controlled Agendas, and the Status Quo. Public Choice, 33:27–43.10.1007/BF03187594CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shepsle, Kenneth. 1979. Institutional Arrangements and Equilibrium in Multidimensional Voting Models. American Journal of Political Science, 23:27–59.10.2307/2110770CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shepsle, Kenneth. 1983. Institutional Equilibrium and Equilibrium Institutions. Presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Chicago, IL.Google Scholar
Shepsle, Kenneth, and Weingast, Barry. 1981. Structure-induced Equilibrium and Legislative Choice. Public Choice, 37:503–519.10.1007/BF00133748CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shepsle, Kenneth, and Weingast, Barry. 1984. Uncovered Sets and Sophisticated Voting Outcomes with Implications for Agenda Institutions. American Journal of Political Science, 28:49–74.10.2307/2110787CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shepsle, Kenneth, Weingast, Barry, and Johnsen, Christopher. 1981. The Political Economy of Benefits and Costs. Journal of Political Economy, 89: 642–64.Google Scholar
Williamson, Oliver. 1975. Markets and Hierarchies. New York: The Free Press.Google Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.