Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T16:57:32.822Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

How Is Leadership Exercised in the US House? Party Leaders' and Committee Chairs' “Actions”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 June 2015

Marija Anna Bekafigo
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Party leaders and committee chairs are rarely studied side by side. This study takes a step toward resolving that shortcoming by using an approach developed by David Mayhew to content analyze 3,163 original leadership “actions” from the Washington Post to demonstrate how leadership is exercised in the US House before and after the 1970 reforms. Existing studies demonstrate a shift in the locus of power from committee chairs to party leaders. This study details that transformation by illustrating how these leaders operate and reveals a shift in the number and type of leadership maneuvers that capture the essence of the reforms. Mainly, committee chairs were more likely to lead by legislating and party leaders are shown to lead by taking stands. The results also provide comparative evidence that party leaders had a greater connection to the president than chairs.

Type
Articles
Information
Social Science History , Volume 38 , Issue 3-4 , Fall/Winter 2014 , pp. 291 - 310
Copyright
Copyright © Social Science History Association, 2015 

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

Abramowitz, Alan I. (2010) The Disappearing Center: Engaged Citizens, Polarization, and American Democracy. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Aldrich, John H., and Rohde, David W. (2005) “Congressional committees in a partisan era,” in Dodd, Lawrence C. and Oppenheimer, Bruce I. (eds.) Congress Reconsidered. Washington, DC: CQ Press: 249–70.Google Scholar
Aldrich, John H., and Rohde, David W. (2009) “Congressional committees in a continuing partisan era,” in Dodd, Lawrence C. and Oppenheimer, Bruce I. (eds.) Congress Reconsidered. Washington, DC: CQ Press: 217–40.Google Scholar
Bensel, Richard (2000) “Of rules and speakers: Toward a theory of institutional change for the U.S. House of Representatives.” Social Science History 24 (2): 349–66.Google Scholar
Bolling, Richard (1974) “Committees in the House.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 411 (1): 1–14.Google Scholar
Conley, Richard Steven (2003) The Presidency, Congress, and Divided Government: A Postwar Assessment. Hughes, Joseph V. Jr., and Hughes, Holly O. Series in the Presidency and Leadership Studies. College Station: Texas A&M University Press.Google Scholar
Cooper, Joseph, and Brady, David W. (1981) “Institutional context and leadership style: The House from Cannon to Rayburn.” American Political Science Review 75 (2): 411–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cox, Gary W., and McCubbins, Mathew D. (1993) Legislative Leviathan: Party Government in the House. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Cox, Gary W., and McCubbins, Mathew D. (2005) Setting the Agenda: Responsible Party Government in the US House of Representatives. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cox, Gary W., and McCubbins, Mathew D. (2007) Legislative Leviathan: Party Government in the House. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Dodd, Lawrence C., and Oppenheimer, Bruce I. (1981) “The House in transition: Change and consolidation,” in Dodd, Lawrence C. and Oppenheimer, Bruce I. (eds.) Congress Reconsidered. Washington, DC: CQ Press: 31–61.Google Scholar
Dodd, Lawrence C., and Oppenheimer, Bruce I. (1985) “The House in transition: Partisanship and opposition,” in Dodd, Lawrence C. and Oppenheimer, Bruce I. (eds.) Congress Reconsidered. Washington, DC: CQ Press: 34–64.Google Scholar
Evans, C. Lawrence (2001) “Committees, leaders, and message politics,” in Dodd, Lawrence C. and Oppenheimer, Bruce I. (eds.) Congress Reconsidered. Washington, DC: CQ Press: 217–43.Google Scholar
Farnsworth, Stephen J., and Robert Lichter, S. (2012) “News coverage of new presidents in the New York Times, 1981–2009.” Politics and Policy 40 (1): 69–91.Google Scholar
Fenno, Richard F. Jr. (1973) Congressmen in Committees. Boston: Little, Brown.Google Scholar
Fiorina, Morris, Abrams, Samuel J., and Pope, Jeremy C. (2005) Culture War? The Myth of a Polarized America. New York: Pearson Longman.Google Scholar
Galloway, George B. (1953) The Legislative Process in Congress. New York: Crowell.Google Scholar
Green, Matthew N. (2010) The Speaker of the House : A Study of Leadership. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Gross, Bertram Myron (1953) The Legislative Struggle: A Study in Social Combat. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Harris, Douglas B. (1998) “The rise of the public speakership.” Political Science Quarterly 133 (2): 193–212.Google Scholar
Huntington, Samuel P. (1973) “Congressional responses to the twentieth century,” in Truman, David B. (ed.) The Congress and America's Future. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall: 5–31.Google Scholar
Kernell, Samuel (1997) Going Public: New Strategies of Presidential Leadership. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Press.Google Scholar
Lee, Frances E. (2013) “Legislative parties in an era of alternating majorities.” Paper presented at the Representation and Governance: A Conference In Honor of David Mayhew, Center for the Study of American Politics, Yale University, May 29–30.Google Scholar
Leighton, Wayne A., and Lopez, Edward J. (2002) “Committee assignments and the cost of party loyalty.” Political Research Quarterly 55 (1): 59–90.Google Scholar
MacNeil, Neil (1963) Forge of Democracy. New York: Van Rees Press.Google Scholar
Manley, John F. (1970) The Politics of Finance: The House Committee on Ways and Means. Boston: Little, Brown.Google Scholar
Mayhew, David R. (2000) America's Congress: Actions in the Public Sphere, James Madison through Newt Gingrich. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Mayhew, David R. (2005) Divided We Govern: Party Control, Lawmaking, and Investigations, 1946–2002. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Morris, Jonathan S., and Clawson, Rosalee A. (2005) “Media coverage of Congress in the 1990s: Scandals, personalities, and the prevalence of policy and process.” Political Communication 22 (3): 297–313.Google Scholar
Owens, John E. (1985) “Extreme advocacy leadership in the pre-reform House: Wright Patman and the House Banking and Currency Committee.” British Journal of Political Science 15 (2): 187–206.Google Scholar
Pearson, Kathryn, and Schickler, Eric (2009) “The transition to Democratic leadership in a polarized House,” in Dodd, Lawrence C. and Oppenheimer, Bruce I. (eds.) Congress Reconsidered. Washington, DC: CQ Press: 165–88.Google Scholar
Peters, Ronald M., and Rosenthal, Cindy Simon (2010) Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the New American Politics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Polsby, Nelson W., Gallaher, Miriam, and Rundquist, Barry Spencer (1969) “The growth of the seniority system in the U. S. House of Representatives.” American Political Science Review 63 (3): 787–807.Google Scholar
Ripley, Randall B. (1967) Party Leaders in the House of Representatives. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.Google Scholar
Rohde, David (1991) Parties and Leaders in the Postreform House. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Rudder, Catherine E. (1977) “Committee reform and the revenue process,” in Dodd, Lawrence C. and Oppenheimer, Bruce I. (eds.) Congress Reconsidered. New York: Praeger Publishers: 117–39.Google Scholar
Schickler, Eric (2001) Disjointed Pluralism: Institutional Innovation and the Development of the U.S. Congress. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Schickler, Eric, and Pearson, Kathryn (2005) “The House leadership in an era of partisan warfare,” in Dodd, Lawrence C. and Oppenheimer, Bruce I. (eds.) Congress Reconsidered. Washington, DC: CQ Press: 207–26.Google Scholar
Shepsle, Kenneth A. (1989) “The changing textbook Congress,” in Chubb, John E. and Paul Peterson, E. (eds.) Can the Government Govern? Washington, DC: Brookings Institution: 238–66.Google Scholar
Sinclair, Barbara (1983) Majority Leadership in the US House. Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Sinclair, Barbara (1995) Legislators, Leaders, and Lawmaking. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Sinclair, Barbara (1997) Unorthodox Lawmaking: New Legislative Processes in the U.S. Congress. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Press.Google Scholar
Smith, Steven S. (1989) Call to Order: Floor Politics in the House and Senate. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.Google Scholar
Smith, Steven S., and Deering, Christopher J. (1984) Committees in Congress. Washington, DC: CQ Press.Google Scholar
Smith, Steven S., and Lawrence, Eric D. (1997) “Party control of committees in the Republican Congress,” in Dodd, Lawrence C. and Oppenheimer, Bruce I. (eds.) Congress Reconsidered. Washington, DC: CQ Press: 163–92.Google Scholar
Strahan, Randall (2007) Leading Representatives: The Agency of Leaders in the Politics of the U.S. House. Interpreting American Politics. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Strahan, Randall (2011) “Party Leadership,” in Schickler, Eric and Lee, Frances E. (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of The American Congress. New York: Oxford University Press: 371–95.Google Scholar
Truman, David B. (1959) “The presidency and congressional leadership: Some notes on our changing constitution.” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 103 (5): 687–92.Google Scholar
Young, Garry, and Heitshusen, Valerie (2003) “Party and the dynamics of congressional committee composition in the US House, 1947–96.” British Journal of Political Science 33 (4): 659–79.Google Scholar
Zelizer, Julian E. (2000) “Bridging state and society.” Social Science History 24 (2): 379–93.Google Scholar