The American Legislative Process Congress and the States

by Keefe, William J.; Ogul, Morris S.

• ISBN13: 9780130877031
• ISBN10: 0130877034
• Edition: 10th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-05-26
• Publisher: Pearson

Summary

/8770C-5, 0-13-087703-4, Keefe, William J., Ogul, Morris S., The American Legislative Process: Congress and the States, 10/E//-->This book describes and analyzes the American legislative process using a wide variety of perspectives and sources to encompass legal, behavioral, normative, and historical dimensions. Its current content reflects evolving legislatures and the latest literature on the legislative process.Chapter topics include financing congressional elections, pork barrel politics in Congress, initiative and referendum, term limits, impeachment, redistricting and the courts, recruitment of legislative candidates, PACs, committee politics, committee floor relations, rules, legislative strategy, party caucuses, party voting, independent counsels, presidential leadership in Congress, congressional accountability, reapportionment, incumbency, congressional norms, house speakership, seniority, majority-minority districts, interest group influence, party impact on policy making, legislative-judicial relations, and legislative ethics.For anyone interested in the United States Congress, the legislative process, and American political institutions.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Using the Internet to Study the Legislative Process	xi
PART I LEGISLATURES AND LEGISLATORS IN THE POLITICAL SYSTEM
The Legislative Task	1	(52)
Discontent over the Legislature	3	(18)
The Functions of the Legislature	21	(24)
A Bill Becomes a Law	45	(2)
Notes	47	(6)
Legislative Structures and Powers	53	(23)
The Constitutional Status of the American Legislature	54	(7)
Organizing the Legislature	61	(2)
Presiding Officers	63	(2)
Rules of Procedure	65	(1)
The Legislative Body: Size, Terms of Members, and Sessions	66	(6)
Bicameralism	72	(1)
Structure, Powers, and Policy	73	(1)
Notes	73	(3)
Representation and Apportionment	76	(34)
Representatives and Represented	77	(7)
The Representative System	84	(4)
The Malapportionment Issue	88	(4)
The Struggle for Equitable Apportionment	92	(13)
Notes	105	(5)
Legislators and the Electoral Process	110	(45)
Recruitment of Legislators	110	(4)
The Nominating Process	114	(3)
Congressional and Legislative Elections	117	(17)
Financing Congressional Campaigns	134	(9)
Elections and the Legislature	143	(1)
Notes	144	(11)
The Legislators	155	(35)
Social and Occupational Backgrounds of American Legislators	155	(8)
Legislative Experience: Tenure and Turnover	163	(4)
Pay and Perquisites	167	(3)
Privileges and Immunities	170	(1)
Legislators' Adaptation to the Legislature	170	(5)
Legislators and Legislative Norms	175	(7)
Legislator and Legislature	182	(1)
Notes	183	(7)
PART II THE LEGISLATIVE STRUCTURE FOR DECISION MAKING
The Committee System	190	(39)
The Role of Committees	191	(4)
The Representativeness of Committees	195	(2)
Kinds of Committees	197	(9)
Committee Jurisdiction	206	(2)
Committee Members and Committee Chairs	208	(10)
Committee Staffs	218	(4)
Notes	222	(7)
Committees at Work	229	(28)
Committee Hearings	230	(9)
Investigating Committees	239	(6)
Committee Sessions	245	(1)
Committee Decisions	246	(4)
Committee Power	250	(4)
Notes	254	(3)
Debate and Decision Making on the Floor	257	(34)
From Committee to Floor	257	(1)
The Rules Committee of the House of Representatives	258	(10)
The Amending Process	268	(3)
Debate	271	(12)
Casting the Vote	283	(3)
The Multiple Points of Decision Making	286	(1)
Notes	287	(4)
PART III LEGISLATURES, PARTIES, AND INTERESTS
Political Parties and the Legislative Process	291	(53)
Legislative Party Organization	291	(20)
Party Influence on Legislation	311	(20)
Party Responsibility in Congress	331	(3)
Notes	334	(10)
Interest Groups and the Legislative Process	344	(44)
Interest-Group Politics in America	345	(2)
The Lobbyists	347	(3)
Major Access Points in the Legislative Process	350	(2)
Special Techniques Used by Lobbies	352	(11)
Grass-Roots Lobbying	363	(2)
Pressures on the Parties	365	(1)
The Effectiveness of Interest-Group Tactics	366	(1)
Factors in the Effectiveness of Interest Groups	367	(3)
Legislator-Lobbyist Relations	370	(3)
Regulation of Lobbying	373	(4)
Interest Groups and Democratic Government	377	(5)
Notes	382	(6)
PART IV INTERACTION WITH THE EXECUTIVE AND THE COURTS
The Chief Executive as Legislator	388	(37)
Societal Conditions and Executive Influence	389	(1)
The Legal Base for Executive Influence	390	(16)
Partisan Politics and Executive Influence	406	(2)
The Personal Dimension of Executive Leadership	408	(4)
The Effectiveness of Executive Influence: Overview	412	(1)
The Effectiveness of Executive Influence: The Problem of Measurement	412	(3)
Conclusions and Tendencies	415	(2)
Notes	417	(8)
Legislative Oversight of Bureaucracy	425	(32)
Politics, Policy, and Administration	425	(2)
What Do Legislators Oversee, and How?	427	(15)
Legislative Oversight: Goals and Effectiveness	442	(9)
Notes	451	(6)
Legislative-Judicial Relations	457	(30)
Courts and Legislatures: Comparison and Contrast	457	(2)
The Courts: Personnel, Structure, Procedures	459	(5)
Legislatures, Courts, and the Separation of Powers	464	(2)
Legislatures, Courts, and Public Policy	466	(6)
Legislative Reaction to Court Decisions	472	(7)
Legislatures, Courts, and the Political Process	479	(1)
Notes	480	(7)
PART V CONCLUSION
The Legislative Process: Problems and Perspectives	487	(35)
Efforts to Reform the Legislature	487	(11)
The Continuing Problems	498	(16)
Conclusion	514	(4)
Notes	518	(4)
Index	522

Excerpts

PREFACEThe American legislature is the first branch of government. It is the legislature that decides which policy proposals will be considered, shaped, and turned into public law. New policy ventures require legislative approval; earlier political settlements rest on legislative forbearance. The ultimate responsibility for the direction and scope of public programs thus rests with the legislature. But the legislature is a remarkably open and accessible institation, and hence its decisions are often influenced by the preferences of outside interests and actors, including the chief executive.The centrality of legislatures in the American system of government is a function of their prominent constitutional position, especially in the case of Congress. Legislatures, of course, are much more than the sum of their constitutional powers. They are places where individual political careers develop and expand and where political maneuvering is a way of life. Supported by their staffs and others, members invest unusual amounts of time and energy in protecting and enhancing their careers, and the legislature is singularly hospitable to their needs--for advertising their wares, gaining recognition and position, and heightening their advantages in the electoral process. The truth of the matter is that, for the typical member, nothing looms more important than his or her career. Failure to protect it, using the resources of the legislature, is more likely to stem from a lack of imagination than from a lack of opportunity.More than any other institution of government, the legislature reflects the range and reality of American politics--in the behavior of the politicians who do business there, in the conflicts that are resolved there, and in the struggles that occur there to gain the benefits that government can confer or to avoid the penalties that it can impose. The legislature is a microcosm of all democratic politics. Inevitably, it holds a fascination for attentive observers and other democrats.American legislatures warrant careful examination for a reason that goes well beyond the fascination of observers. They are changing institutions: their popularity fluctuates; media attention to them vacillates; events help to shape them; election outcomes influence them; strong leaders bend them; new members may alter their character. Legislatures also change by themselves--sometimes self-consciously and independently, sometimes in response to pressures from the outside, sometimes simply to serve symbolic purposes.The American legislatures of the 2000s are by no means the same as those of earlier decades. Nor is what we know about them quite the same. The need to examine the evolving legislatures and to take account of the new literature on the legislative process provides the main justification for the preparation of this tenth edition.At this point, scholars have developed no encompassing scheme for analyzing the legislative process useful enough to justify its exclusive adoption. In this respect, political scientists who engage in research in this field work under the same burdens shared by political scientists in all fields. Within this limitation, this book proposes to describe and analyze the American legislative process. We have sought to wring the most that we can from a variety of approaches and have drawn upon a wide-ranging assortment of studies--of legal, behavioral, normative, and historical dimensions. The only test invoked has been of their apparent appropriateness to a better understanding of the behavior of legislators and the functioning of legislatures.The three major assumptions made in this work are central to effective analysis. First, we believe that legislative institutions should be viewed in relationship to larger environments and inclusive political systems. Accordingly, we have given the role of "outsiders"--political pa