The Macropolitics of Congress (ebook)

Argumento de The Macropolitics of Congress (ebook)

How do public laws, treaties, Senate confirmations, and other legislative achievements help us to gain insight into how our governmental system performs?

This well-argued book edited by Scott Adler and John Lapinski is the first to assess our political institutions by looking at what the authors refer to as legislative accomplishment. The book moves beyond current research on Congress that focuses primarily on rules, internal structure, and the microbehavior of individual lawmakers, to look at the mechanisms that govern how policy is enacted and implemented in the United States. It includes essays on topics ranging from those dealing with the microfoundations of congressional output, to large N empirical analyses that assess current theories of lawmaking, to policy-centered case studies.

All of the chapters take a Congress-centered perspective on macropolicy while still appreciating the importance of other branches of government in explaining policy accomplishment. The Macropolitics of Congress shines light on promising pathways for the exploration of such key issues as the nature of political representation. It will make a significant contribution to the study of Congress and, more generally, to our understanding of American politics. Contributors include E. Scott Adler, David Brady, Charles M. Cameron, Brandice Canes-Wrone, Robert S. Erikson, Grace R. Freedman, Valerie Heitshusen, John D. Huber, Ira Katznelson, Keith Krehbiel, John S. Lapinski, David Leblang, Michael B. MacKuen, David R. Mayhew, Nolan McCarty, Charles R. Shipan, James A. Stimson, and Garry Young.0List of Contributors ix
Acknowledgments xv

Introduction: Defining the Macropolitics of Congress by John S. Lapinski and E. Scott Adler 1

Part I: Theoretical Approaches to the Macropolitics of Congress

Chapter 1: Macropolitics and Micromodels: Cartels and Pivots Reconsidered by Keith Krehbiel 21
Chapter 2: Bureaucratic Capacity and Legislative Performance by John D. Huber and Nolan McCarty 50

Part II: The Macropolitics of Representation

Chapter 3: Public Opinion and Congressional Policy: A Macro-Level Perspective by Robert S. Erikson, Michael B. MacKuen, and James A. Stimson 79
Chapter 4: The Substance of Representation: Studying Policy Content and Legislative Behavior by Ira Katznelson and John S. Lapinski 96

Part III: Testing Theories of Macropolitics across Time

Chapter 5: Macropolitics and Changes in the U.S. Code: Testing Competing Theories of Policy Production, 1874-1946 by Valerie Heitshusen and Garry Young 129
Chapter 6: Does Divided Government Increase the Size of the Legislative Agenda? by Charles R. Shipan 151

Part IV: Macropolitics and Public Policy

Chapter 7: The Macropolitics of Telecommunications Policy, 1899-1998: Lawmaking, Policy Windows, and Agency Control by Grace R. Freedman and Charles M. Cameron 173
Chapter 8: The Influence of Congress and the Courts over the Bureaucracy: An Analysis of Wetlands Policy by Brandice Canes-Wrone 195
Chapter 9: Legislative Bargaining and the Macroeconomy by E. Scott Adler and David Leblang 211

Part V: Understanding the Macropolitics of Congress

Chapter 10: Lawmaking and History by David R. Mayhew 241
Chapter 11: Rational Choice, History, and the Dynamics of Congress by David Brady 251

Index 259