Congress and Its Members, 14e

Congress and Its Members is the gold standard for the Congress course. Over 13 editions, the book has offered comprehensive coverage of the U.S. Congress and the legislative process by looking at the tension between Congress as a lawmaking institution and as a collection of re-election-minded politicians. The fourteenth edition accounts for the 2012 elections and includes discussion of the agenda of the new Congress, White House–Capitol Hill relations, party and committee leadership changes, judicial appointments, and partisan polarization, as well as covering changes to budgeting, campaign finance, lobbying, public attitudes about Congress, reapportionment, rules, and procedures. Always balancing great scholarship with currency, the book features lively case material along with relevant data, charts, exhibits, maps, and photos.

NEW TO THIS EDITION:

• New co-author, Eric Schickler, brings his expertise in American politics and Congress to this edition.
• Current examples and cases drawn from recent battles over budgets, health care reform, defense, immigration, and tax policy.
• Analysis of recent political events and issues includes
  • the 2012 congressional campaigns;
  • elections after the post-2010 redistricting;
  • party and leadership changes for the 113th Congress;
  • executive–legislative relations under President Obama;
  • new procedures in the House and Senate;
  • budgeting in an era of huge deficits; and
  • public attitudes about Congress as dysfunctional.
• Recent scholarship has been added to every chapter, on such topics as political ambition and candidacy, elections, lobbying influence, and deliberation.

KEY FEATURES:

• Comprehensive coverage of Congress and the legislative process provides students with an insightful look at the tension between Congress as a lawmaking institution and as a collection of re-election-minded politicians.
• A judicious balance of great scholarship and currency provides readers with a contemporary look at the realities of the legislative institution and process
• Lively case material, along with relevant data, charts, exhibits, maps, and photos, brings concepts to life.
• All of the book’s graphics are available for download in JPG and PowerPoint format.

Congress Reconsidered, 10e

Since its first edition, Congress Reconsidered was designed to make available the best contemporary work from leading congressional scholars in a form that is both challenging and accessible to undergraduates. For almost four decades, Dodd and Oppenheimer have delivered on this goal. With their tenth edition, this tradition continues, but with the benefit of contributing authors now able to focus on how various aspects of Congress have changed over time. Gary Jacobson not only analyzes congressional elections in the present day, but looks at changes that have occurred in elections since the 1970s. James Thurber places today’s struggles over the budget in the context of budget politics since the passage of the Budget and Impoundment Control Act. John Aldrich, Brittany Perry, and David Rohde trace the evolution of the House’s most influential committees, while Kathryn Pearson examines the growth (in number and influence) of women members of Congress. Simply put, this volume remains on the cutting edge with key insights into the workings of Congress.

NEW TO THIS EDITION:

• 11 new essays with all returning contributions thoroughly revised to account for new events, developments, and data.

Features include:

• rich post-election analysis—a hallmark of the volume—from Dodd and Oppenheimer, just weeks after election day;
• brief headnotes that act as contextual abstracts for each essay, pointing students to a piece’s importance and relevance; and
• a comprehensive Suggested Readings list—a go-to bibliographic reference on Congress for students.

Congress and Its Members, 14e

1. The Two Congresses
2. Evolution of the Modern Congress
3. Going for It: Recruitment and Candidacy
4. Making It: The Electoral Game
5. Being There: Hill Styles and Home Styles
6. Leaders and Parties in Congress
7. Committees: Workshops of Congress
8. Congressional Rules and Procedures
9. Deliberation in Congress
10. Congress and the President
11. Congress and the Bureaucracy
12. Congress and the Courts
13. Congress and Organized Interests
14. Congress, Budgets, and Domestic Policymaking
15. Congress and National Security Policies
16. The Two Congresses and the American People

Congress Reconsidered, 10e

Tables and Figures
Contributors
Preface

Part I Patterns and Dynamics of Congressional Change
1. The New World of U.S. Senators
Barbara Sinclair
2. The House in a Time of Crisis: Economic Turmoil and Partisan Upheaval
Lawrence C. Dodd and Bruce I. Oppenheimer
3. Congresswomen’s Pursuit of Power in a Partisan Environment
Kathryn Pearson

Part II Elections and Constituencies
4. Voters, Candidates, and Issues in Congressional Elections
Robert S. Erikson and Gerald C. Wright
5. Partisanship, Money, and Competition: Elections and the Transformation of Congress since the 1970s
Gary C. Jacobson
6. Parties, Members, and Campaign Contributions in the House of Representatives
William Bernhard and Tracy Sulkin

Part III Parties and Committees
7. The Dynamics of Party Government in Congress
Steven S. Smith and Gerald Gamm
8. Richard Fenno’s Theory of Congressional Committees and the Partisan Polarization of the House
John H. Aldrich, Brittany N. Perry, and David W. Rohde
9. Filibustering and Parties in the Modern Senate
Gregory Koger
10. Legislative Effectiveness and Representation
Craig Volden and Alan E. Wiseman

Part IV Congress, the President, and Public Policy
11. Advice and Consent: The Politics of Confirming Federal Judges
Sarah A. Binder and Forrest Maltzman
12. Energy Legislation from the OPEC Embargo to Obama’s Sidestep of Congress
13. The Dynamics and Dysfunction of the Congressional Budget Process: From Inception to Deadlock
James Thurber
14. Tax Policy Making and Fiscal Responsibility: Is Congress Capable of Doing Its Job?
Catherine E. Rudder
15. Congressional Leadership of War Opinion? Backlash Effects and the Polarization of Public Support for War
Douglas L. Kriner and William G. Howell

Part V Congress and Political Change
16. The Modern Congress
Joseph Cooper
17. Party Polarization and Policy Productivity in Congress: From Harding to Obama
Lawrence C. Dodd and Scot Schraufnagel
18. Congress and the Emerging Order: Assessing the 2012 Elections
Lawrence C. Dodd and Bruce I. Oppenheimer

Suggested Readings
Index

Lawrence C. Dodd holds the Manning J. Dauer Eminent Scholar Chair in Political Science at the University of Florida. His books include New Perspectives on American Politics (1994), Congress and Policy Change (1986), and Congress and the Administrative State (1979). He had been a University Fellow (1993-1994), Hoover National Fellow (1984-1985), and Congressional Fellow (1974-1975) and was the recipient of the 1997-1998 Superior Faculty Service Award for his leadership and program-building efforts at the University of Florida.

Roger H. Davidson is professor emeritus of government and politics at the University of Maryland, and has served as visiting professor of political science at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration. During the 2001–2002 academic year, he served as the John Marshall Chair in political science at the University of Debrecen, Hungary. His books include Remaking Congress: Change and Stability in the 1990s, co-edited with James A. Thurber (1995), and Understanding the Presidency, Seventh Edition, co-edited with James P. Pfiffner (2012). Davidson is co-editor with Donald C. Bacon and Morton Keller of The Encyclopedia of the United States Congress (1995).

Walter J. Oleszek is a senior specialist in the legislative process at the Congressional Research Service. He has served as either a full-time professional staff aide or consultant to every major House and Senate congressional reorganization effort beginning with passage of the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1970. In 1993 he served as Policy Director of the Joint Committee on the Organization of Congress. A longtime adjunct faculty member at American University, Oleszek is a frequent lecturer to various academic, governmental, and business groups. He is the author or co-author of several books, including Congress Under Fire: Reform Politics and the Republican Majority, with C. Lawrence Evans (1997) and Congressional Procedures and the Policy Process, Ninth Edition, (2013).

Frances E. Lee is professor of government and politics at the University of Maryland. She is author of Beyond Ideology: Politics, Principles, and Partisanship in the U.S. Senate (2009) and co-author of Sizing Up the Senate: The Unequal Consequences of Equal Representation (1999). Her work has received national recognition, including the Richard F. Fenno, Jr. Prize for the best book in legislative politics in 2010, and the D.B. Hardeman Prize for the best book on a congressional topic in both 1999 and 2011. Her articles have appeared in American Political Science Review, Journal of Politics, Legislative Studies Quarterly, and American Journal of Political Science, among others.

Eric Schickler is Jeffrey & Ashley McDermott Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of Disjointed Pluralism: Institutional Innovation and the Development of the U.S. Congress (2001), which received APSA's Richard F. Fenno Award. His second book, Partisan Hearts and Minds (co-authored with Donald Green and Bradley Palmquist), was published in 2002. He is also co-author of Filibuster: Obstruction and Lawmaking in the U.S. Senate (co-authored with Gregory Wawro, 2006), which also received APSA's Richard F. Fenno Award. He has authored or co-authored articles in the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Legislative Studies Quarterly, Comparative Political Studies, Polity, Public Opinion Quarterly, and Social Science History.