Presidential Power and the Modern Presidents : The Politics of Leadership from Roosevelt to Reagan

Theory: Recent work on congressional committee composition suggests that the informational or partisan models better explain legislative structure than models based on "distributive" politics. We argue that in many instances a gains from exchange model, where committees are composed of members representing highdemand constituencies, is more appropriate. Hypotheses: The gains from exchange theory of congressional structure argues that congressional committees will be composed of representatives who come from congressional districts with higher demand for the policy benefits that each committee controls. In contrast to previous findings that committees are frequently ideologically representative of the entire chamber, these gains from exchange models suggest that a more accurate test of the policy needs of legislators would incorporate economic, social, and geographic information about the congressional districts that they represent. Methods: Census data, as well as information from several other sources, are collected for every congressional district from 1943 to 1994. District profiles on certain key characteristics for committee members are compared with those of the chamber using a nonparametric Monte Carlo simulation (difference-in-medians) test. The membership of 13 standing House committees is examined across 50 years. Results: Several committees are found to be composed of members representing districts whose characteristics indicate that they have high levels of "need" for the policy benefits under the jurisdiction of that committee. These findings, frequently consistent across time, apply to both committees that are traditionally considered constituency service-oriented and several that are thought to be more "policy oriented."

http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/2111679.pdf

Demand-Side Theory and Congressional Committee Composition: A Constituency Characteristics Approach

Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954–1963. By Taylor Branch. New York: Simon ' Schuster, 1988. 1088 pp. $24.95

Politics and Policy: The Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson Years

Pork Barrel Politics: Rivers and Harbors Legislation, 1947–68 . By Ferejohn John A.. (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1974. Pp. 288. $12.50.)

Congress does most of its work in committee, and no understanding of that body can be complete without an analysis of its committees and those who shape them. Andree Reeves now offers a rare glimpse into the workings of committee chairmanship over a span of thirty-three years - how three chairmen operated and how they influenced their committee and its impact. As Reeves demonstrates, the chair is the most important player in a congressional committee - the one who holds more cards than his colleagues and can deal a winning hand or call a bluff. His use of institutional and personal resources affects the committee, the chamber, and public policy. As a case study, Reeves compares the leadership of three disparate and strong House Education and Labor Committee chairmen who served from 1950 to 1984: Graham A. Barden (D-NC), Adam Clayton Powell (D-NY), and Carl D. Perkins (D-KY). She delves into each chairman's background, orientation, and use of resources. Each had his own brand of leadership, she finds, and a pronounced but different impact on Education and Labor. The committee blocked "progressive" legislation under Barden, facilitated Johnson's Great Society under Powell, and fought tooth and nail to maintain its accomplishments under Perkins. Reeves emphasizes also committee development, including the effects of reforms, the relationship between committee composition and policy output, and committee voting patterns. Rather than advancing smoothly and incrementally, Education and Labor developed in stages that coincided with each chairmanship. And over the years covered, it evolved into a more complex, decentralized, and democratic organization. This is an illuminating study of three menwho made a difference in our nation's governance. They left a legacy for succeeding chairmen and indeed for the House, and their chairmanships have had a lasting impact on our society.

Congressional Committee Chairmen: Three Who Made an Evolution

Handle everyday research tasks with reliable, citation-backed results

Your personal Research Agent to handle research tasks with citation-backed results

Popular Tasks used by Researchers

How can I help with your research?

Meet SciSpace

Get more enhanced response by uploading the PDFs you want me to reference.

No relevant PDFs in your library

SciSpace is the AI research assistant for academics. Run systematic literature reviews on 280M+ papers, and write papers with cited sources. Trusted by 1M+ students, PhDs & researchers.

SciSpace | AI for Research

Analyze PDFs

Code & Manuscripts

Funding & Grants

Literature & Patents

Medical & Clinical Data

Systematic Review

Visualize & Present

Web & Data

Build a Google Scholar-like website for your research.

Build a website

Create charts and images for your research

Create a Chart

Write a paper for submission to a journal

Draft a manuscript

Patent Search

Design eye-catching scientific posters in minutes.

Scientific Poster Generation

Systematic Literature Review

One task is running at the moment. Your messages will be shown right after.

Drag and drop or click here to browse

Loved by <highlight>1 million+</highlight> researchers

Extract a list of specific topics and their sources from unstructured text

Topics

Compare and analyze relevant papers that matches with your search

Papers

Get insights from PDFs and bookmarked papers from your library

My library

Recent searches

Try searching for:

Catch AI-generated content in scholarly and non-scholarly content

{ai} Detector

Ai Writer

Get PDF Summaries, highlighted text explanations 

Chat with PDF

Effortlessly create in-text citations and bibliographies in APA and 2,500 other formats

Citation generator

Get explanations, summaries, and answers on academic papers

Ease up your research workflow with {scispace}'s cohort of exciting AI tools

Elevate your academic writing skills and convey your ideas the way you want

Paraphraser

Explore our range of reading and writing tools

Your file is being prepared and should be ready in a few minutes. If it's a large file, it might take a bit longer. You can close this window, and we'll email you the file when it's done.

You have reached a maximum limit of <strong>{limit}</strong> columns in the table. Remove at least <strong>1</strong> column to add or create another one.

Andrée E. Reeves

Author Tools

Chat about Author

Papers

Congressional Committee Chairmen: Three Who Made an Evolution