Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T23:02:11.389Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Leading the New Majorities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 January 2008

Barbara Sinclair
Barbara Sinclair
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

When a political party wrests control of either house of Congress from the other, expectations for change are usually high and that was certainly the case in January 2007 when Democrats took majorities in both chambers for the first time in 12 years. What did the new majorities—and specifically their leaders—promise? To what extent have they delivered? And how do the experiences of the new majorities during their first nine months conform with or raise questions about our theories of Congress? This is perforce an interim report but, even so, it can perhaps shed some light on our theories as well as provide a first assessment of the new majorities and their leaders.In addition to the references cited here, this paper is based on interviews, observation and news accounts.

Type
SYMPOSIUM
Information
PS: Political Science & Politics , Volume 41 , Issue 1 , January 2008 , pp. 89 - 93
Copyright
© 2008 The American Political Science Association

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

Aldrich, John, and David Rohde. 2000. “The Consequences of Party Organization in the House: Theory and Evidence on Conditional Party Government.” In Polarized Politics: Congress and the President in a Partisan Era, eds. Jon Bond and Richard Fleisher. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press.Google Scholar
Cox, Gary, and Mathew McCubbins. 1993. Legislative Leviathan: Party Government in the House. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Cox, Gary, and Mathew McCubbins. 2005. Setting the Agenda. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
housedemocrats.gov. 2006. “A New Direction for America” and “Six in '06.” Now available at: speaker.gov/pdf/thebook.pdf. Accessed fall 2006.Google Scholar
Sinclair, Barbara. 2006. Party Wars: Polarization and the Politics of the Policy Process. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.Google Scholar