Lapinski The Substance of Representation

Congress, American Political Development, and Lawmaking
Course Book
ISBN: 978-1-4008-4863-8
Verlag: De Gruyter
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, Band 133, 192 Seiten, EPUB

Reihe: Princeton Studies in American Politics: Historical, International, and Comparative Perspectives

Lawmaking is crucial to American democracy because it completely defines and regulates the public life of the nation. Yet despite its importance, political scientists spend very little time studying the direct impact that the politics surrounding a particular issue has on lawmaking. The Substance of Representation draws on a vast range of historical and empirical data to better understand how lawmaking works across different policy areas. Specifically, John Lapinski introduces a theoretically grounded method for parsing policy issues into categories, and he shows how policymaking varies in predictable ways based on the specific issue area being addressed.


Lapinski examines the ways in which key factors that influence policymaking matter for certain types of policy issues, and he includes an exhaustive look at how elite political polarization shifts across these areas. He considers how Congress behaves according to the policy issue at hand, and how particular areas--such as war, sovereignty issues, and immigration reform--change legislative performance. Relying on records of all Congressional votes since Reconstruction and analyzing voting patterns across policy areas from the late nineteenth to late twentieth centuries, Lapinski provides a comprehensive historical perspective on lawmaking in order to shed light on current practices.


Giving a clear picture of Congressional behavior in the policymaking process over time, The Substance of Representation provides insights into the critical role of American lawmaking.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Lapinski, John S.

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Systeme Zentralregierung
• Rechtswissenschaften Öffentliches Recht Staats- und Verfassungsrecht
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Regierungspolitik
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Studien zu einzelnen Ländern und Gebieten

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface vii

Chapter I Policy Issue Substance and the Revitalization of Legislative Studies 1

- Why We Need to Restore Policy Issue Substance to Congressional Studies 4

- A Natural Connection: Congressional Studies, American Political Development, and Policy Studies 12

- The Organization of the Book 14

Chapter II Bringing Policy Issue Substance Back In 19

- Pitfalls of the Substantive Tradition 20

- Introducing a New Policy Classification Schema 24

- Conclusion 41

- Appendix: Coding Schema 41

Chapter III Political Polarization and Issues: A New Perspective 54

- Estimating Induced Preferences of Members of Congress 55

- Political Polarization and Policy Issue Substance 57

- House and Senate Party Unity Scores, 1877-2011 58

- Disaggregating Political Polarization 60

- Conclusion 64

- Appendix 65

Chapter IV The Case Studies: Policy Issue Substance and the Political Behavior of Members of Congress (with David Bateman) 69

- Reassessing the 95th Congress 69

- The Case Studies: Examining Sovereignty Policy across Time 74

- Conclusion 102

- Appendix 103

Chapter V Legislative Accomplishment and Policy Issue Substance 104

- Needed: Direct Measures of Legislative Accomplishment 105

- Measuring Legislative Significance 106

- Constructing Macro-Level Measures of Legislative Accomplishment 128

- Conclusion 132

Chapter VI Explaining Lawmaking in the United States, 1877-1994 133

- Critical Hypotheses and Covariates of Lawmaking 134

- Empirically Analyzing Lawmaking 138

- Conclusion 149

Chapter VII At the Crossroads: Policy Issue Substance, Congress, and American Political Development 150

- Ideas for American Political Development 152

- Ideas for Congressional Studies 159

Bibliography 161

Index 171

Über Autor(innen)

John S. Lapinski is associate professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania and the deputy director of elections at NBC News. He is the coeditor of The Macropolitics of Congress (Princeton).